Frenemies
by Dazzlious
Summary: With Voldemort fighting for ascendance, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore is determined to make a concerted effort to put an end to the centuries of unchecked bigotry at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in an attempt to stem the tide of followers to the Dark Lord's cause. But will he succeed when even the teachers are sceptical of his plans?
1. Chapter 1

A/N: _Well, I think we all know I'm a bit of an old romantic at heart and I do love Draco and Hermione, so here's yet another teen romance. It's set in the seventh year at Hogwarts and pretty much ignores the events at the end of book six and the whole canon of the seventh book. I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter ___or anyone else in the wonderful world _Jo Rowling created, with the exception of the original character. As always, thank you to Mamacita for everything she does and thank you to you for taking the time to read the story. Dx_

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><p>'It's time this enmity that has been allowed to build up between the Houses came to an end,' Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, announced gravely.<p>

He looked around at the teachers who were all watching him carefully, aware that what he was about to tell them would at the very least make them uncomfortable and probably rather unhappy. But there was nothing for it; the situation had been allowed to deteriorate badly — to which he had unfortunately contributed as he had hoped that under his steady hand things might improve of their own accord if left alone. But with Voldemort now in control of the Ministry of Magic and poised to re-emerge at any time, Dumbledore had to make an effort to change things before it was too late and he needed their help to do it.

'We are all aware of what is happening outside, but there is no reason we should allow it to affect the school or the relationships of those within its walls. It is our duty to guide the pupils and drive out this hatred and bigotry that is affecting the very foundations of our world.'

'You're not serious,' Professor Snape said incredulously.

Several other teachers mumbled, too, presumably voicing similar opinions to Snape's but less audibly.

Dumbledore fixed his bright blue eyes on Snape's cold black ones. 'I am absolutely serious about this, Severus. The only way Hogwarts will survive, that the whole wizarding world will survive, is if we stop this division between us. It should have been nipped in the bud when Salazar Slytherin first showed signs of discontent, and it most certainly shouldn't have been allowed to spiral out of control to what we see today . . . which I am aware is partially my fault as I allowed things to worsen. All our pupils must be made to realise that there is no difference between any of them. It doesn't matter where they were born, what colour they are, what House they belong in, or how strong their magical ability is: each and every one of them is a witch or wizard and they are all equally important.'

'That's all very well, but it's not what the students in my House are being taught outside of school. Nothing we tell them here will change that view when they have centuries of breeding behind them,' Snape pointed out sensibly.

Dumbledore nodded to show that he had heard Snape's opinion, ignoring the muttering going on among the assembled teachers about entitled pure-blood Slytherins. 'You are, of course, quite correct, Severus, and I am aware that you of all the teachers here will have the hardest task. However, it is not impossible.'

Snape, his face wearing his famous scowl, snorted darkly and shook his head, clearly disagreeing with Dumbledore's assessment. 'And how exactly do you expect us to accomplish this fantastic feat, Headmaster?'

Dumbledore looked at the anxious faces for a moment, then smiled. 'Well, first of all we're not going to be all doom and gloom about it. Please, cheer up. What I aim to achieve here is a good thing.' He saw Snape roll his eyes at this. 'I am aware that we have a huge battle ahead of us, but I think we can at least make inroads into evening things up. For instance, we should have more joint recreational activities where students are encouraged to expand their horizons a little and spend time with those from other Houses. Of course I'm not talking about splitting up current winning partnerships, such as in the Gobstones Club.' He smiled at Professor Flitwick, who was looking worried. 'Neither am I talking about ceasing the continued House rivalry that occurs during Quidditch matches. However, I am sure you are all perfectly capable of thinking up activities for which co-operative participation by all Houses is a requirement. You never know, we may even get some new champions out of it.'

He looked around him again, smiling, as the waiting teachers realised he expected them to do a bit more than just tell off students who were bickering or causing trouble.

'For instance, you, Severus, could reconsider the partnership arrangements for your Potions projects. It wouldn't be too difficult to ensure that no partners are from the same House and that pure-bloods do not work exclusively with other pure-bloods.' He ignored the withering look Snape gave him at this comment. 'I'm sure the same can be said for all of you who work on projects, otherwise perhaps a general rearrangement of the seating in lessons might be in order. I am aware, of course, that teaching those below N.E.W.T. level means you will only be dealing with two Houses at any one time, but I think it will be worth the effort to attempt to integrate them as much as possible, with a view to further integration with the other Houses outside of lessons. It is even more important for this integration to happen with our N.E.W.T. students as they are that much closer to entering the outside world. If they leave Hogwarts fostering a good attitude toward others it makes it that much harder for factions like those that surround Voldemort to take control.' He ignored the shudder that went through many of the staff as he mentioned Voldemort's name.

'Perhaps you should stop Slytherin and Gryffindor studying together, then. That would be a start to making things friendlier,' one of the teachers muttered, but Dumbledore couldn't work out who it was and they had shut up rapidly when Professor McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House, turned and glared at those around her.

'The problem rarely stems from Gryffindor,' she announced haughtily. 'They already have perfectly good relationships with those from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.'

'So this so-called "bad feeling" is purely a Slytherin problem, is it?' Snape asked icily.

'Slytherin does have the largest number of pure-bloods,' Professor Sinistra said matter-of-factly.

'And many of them are related to those who followed You-Know-Who last time so are automatically pre-disposed to be anti-Muggle,' Professor Babbling added pointedly.

Snape's scowl deepened. 'The members of Slytherin House come from the oldest and most noble families in the wizarding world,' he stated imperiously. 'They have extremely strong views which are not likely to be swayed just by playing musical chairs in class or forcing them to be jovial with those from other Houses during their precious free time. The pressure their families inflict upon them to conform is immense and shouldn't be ignored lightly.'

'I am aware of the obstacles,' Dumbledore replied sympathetically, 'but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try, Severus. If nothing else it will give the students a greater appreciation of their peers. If even one pure-blood ends up realising that Muggle-borns aren't any different from him, or a student who would otherwise have been hostile to members of Hufflepuff House for not being as good as him was to change his view, then we will have succeeded; and from that one grain others will eventually follow.'

He was a little disappointed to see the sceptical looks on the faces of his staff. He wasn't suggesting that what he was advocating would be easy. He was well aware it would be anything but. But if they didn't believe they could make a change, they wouldn't put the kind of commitment into achieving results that was required in order for improvements to occur. He knew from experience that the smallest change could result in the biggest upheaval. At the very least, forcing the pure-bloods to confront the fact that the students they avoided or bullied so mercilessly weren't so different from themselves would give most of them pause should they ever be asked to do anything nasty to their fellow classmates once they left school and joined the ranks of Voldemort's followers.

He was well aware that this wasn't an exclusively pure-blood problem. There were several half-bloods who were just as anti-Muggle as any pure-blood, just as some Muggle-borns were fiercely opposed to those whose families were purely magical in retaliation for the way they had been treated; and disdain for those in Hufflepuff House seemed to be pretty universally split across all the other Houses regardless of blood status. Additionally, he knew there were plenty of pure-bloods who had no interest in following Voldemort and were perfectly friendly to Muggle-borns. It was important that their opponents stopped thinking of them as blood-traitors and realised they all shared the same heritage. Although these poor bigoted souls had been brainwashed from early childhood into believing what their families told them, it wasn't too late to help them to see the right path; and with the help of reassuring teachers they might even be urged to take it.

'I understand this is a huge task I am advocating, but surely you must be able to see the potential benefits.' He looked around again as several of the teachers shrugged or looked non-committal. Minerva, Filius, and Pomona were quite clearly ready to back him, although he honestly hadn't expected anything different from them as the Heads of the other three Houses. Severus was his usual unreadable self but Dumbledore knew that he, too, would do what had been asked of him; grudgingly, maybe, but he would do it and, perhaps surprisingly to some, would probably have the greatest success. He sighed. Then, looking stern, he added, 'Well, whether you see the benefit to this or not, you will do it. I expect you all to think about how you can effectively make your classes more integrated and give some thought to post-school activities that could be easily organised. We will discuss your progress, your ideas, and any particular successes or failures at the next staff meeting.'

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><p>Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master, looked at the class in front of him with a sinking heart. It was all very well that bloody old fool Albus having a bright idea to get everyone in the school on good terms, but the reality was a very different thing, especially in a class containing both Harry Potter and his friends, and Draco Malfoy and his. Snape could understand why the Headmaster wanted the closer integration of the Houses, considering the war that was surely coming. There were certainly plenty of children in Slytherin who would benefit from the opportunity to break away from the ideas their families had instilled and just needed that little push to do so, which he would have been unable to provide without this initiative of Albus' allowing him the opportunity. But then you had students like Draco Malfoy who were firmly entrenched in believing the bile and hatred their family espoused and had no interest in even considering any other point of view, and the whole thing seemed like too much of a challenge.<p>

If he was honest he quite liked the idea of splitting up the Terrible Trio, as he knew it would annoy them, especially if he paired each of them with a Slytherin. But he still had a class to teach, a difficult and demanding N.E.W.T. one at that, so the disruption that imposing new project partners upon the class would create needed to be in proportion and manageable. For that reason neither Potter nor Weasley could be paired with Malfoy. The hatred and distrust that existed between the Gryffindor boys and the blond-haired Slytherin boy was legendary, and Snape was under no illusion that a pairing containing any two of the three would be anything but catastrophic for everyone in the school. The easiest option by far was to pair all three of them with students from other Houses and attempt to keep them as far away from each other as possible.

As the class read through a chapter in _Advanced Potion Making_ that he had set to keep them occupied while he finished debating what to do, Snape's eyes darted around the room, mentally pairing up students, attempting to match them both in the way suggested by Albus and also in a way which wouldn't cause educational strife for any of them. Whilst the students in his class were undoubtedly the best in the school as he never took anyone who hadn't achieved Outstanding in their O.W.L.s, there were many differing levels of ability in the class. The last thing he needed was for one of the bottom-scrapers, Potter and Weasley amongst them, to be paired with and hold back one of the high-achievers. And talking of high-achievers, there was the problem of Hermione Granger, the admittedly brilliant but dreadfully annoying Gryffindor witch who was a close friend of Potter and Weasley. The obvious choice was to put Malfoy and her together as they were so closely matched in ability; it would be fascinating to see what the couple could achieve between them given the opportunity. But Granger was Muggle-born and Malfoy the most outspoken detractor of those not pure-blood, and the two of them had already had several unpleasant encounters over the years. Snape couldn't believe that when Albus was thinking about harmony between the Houses he expected Granger and Malfoy to have to overcome their differences and work together. Although. . . .

He realised that some of the class were beginning to get restless, having finished the reading he had set them. Malfoy and his friends were larking around, threatening to disturb those who were still working, confident that as Slytherins they wouldn't get into trouble in his class, which was generally true. He scanned the assembled students one final time before standing up, the scowl visible on his face as he prepared to unleash his bombshell.

'I take it from the noise you're all making that you have finished reading,' he said coldly. 'Hopefully, if you bothered to ingest the information you will have a greater understanding of the complexity of the project upon which you are about to embark.'

He walked out from behind his desk to stand in front of the workbench shared by Potter and Weasley.

'This project will not only be the most challenging you have yet undertaken but will also represent something of a departure for most of you. Since joining the course, and in some cases since joining the school, you have tended to stay partnered with the same people.' He stared blatantly at the two boys in front of him. 'However, the time has come to prepare you for the outside world. Whilst it is possible that you may eventually gain a job where you will work exclusively with the same people, in general this is unlikely to be the case and you will be required to interact with all manner of people without it causing a problem. Therefore, for this project you will not be working with your usual cohorts.'

He waited as the majority of the class reacted somewhat negatively to this announcement, with a considerable amount of hurried whispering.

Waspishly he continued, 'Quiet, please, I haven't finished. Additionally, the Headmaster is somewhat concerned that the four Houses aren't mixing quite as freely as the Founders intended. Therefore, in the spirit of cordial endeavour and with the hope that this will be rectified, there will be substantial rearrangements in partnering. What this means to you personally is that no one in this room will be partnered with someone from his or her own House. Whilst you may not like the situation, you will bear it with good grace and attempt to do your best within the project, _co-operating_ and working with your new partner.'

The whispering had grown louder and sounded angrier, especially amongst the Slytherins and Gryffindors.

'You never know, the new arrangement might even improve your performance,' he added smugly, his eyes fastened once more on Potter.

Harry glared at him. Snape ignored the look, and that of Draco Malfoy who looked just as angry as Potter, and turned towards the blackboard. He tapped it with his wand and a table of names appeared.

'As you can see, this is a list of partnering arrangements for the project. With the minimum amount of fuss, please change places as appropriate.' He looked to the left hand side of the class. 'Miss Bones, please move to the workbench next to you, and your new partner, Mr Zabini, can join you there.'

There was general quiet grumbling amongst the students as they worked out who they were partnered with and whether or not they needed to move. Draco, who hadn't made any effort to pack away but had been carefully studying the blackboard with an ever-growing scowl, raised his hand. Snape looked at him interestedly.

'Yes, Mr Malfoy, you have a question?'

'Sir, there seems to have been some mistake with the pairings,' Draco said, his voice imperious.

Several of the Slytherins who had been packing up around him stopped what they were doing to listen to the conversation. Snape glanced at the blackboard for a moment, then gazed back at Draco with a slightly questioning look.

'I don't think there is any error, Mr Malfoy. I think it's all perfectly clear, isn't it?'

'But sir, you've paired me with the Mudblood,' Draco retorted.

Snape's scowl reappeared immediately. 'I have told you before not to use that word, Mr Malfoy. If you insist on doing so you will very shortly find yourself in detention.' Draco looked surprised at the teacher's comment. Snape never punished Slytherins. Ignoring the look, Snape continued, 'You have been paired with the person I felt most suitable to partner you for this project, and I expect to not hear any complaints on the subject. The two of you are almost equal in ability, although _you_ don't always show it, and it is hoped that Miss Granger's calm hand will raise your game — which, with the final exams only months away, you most assuredly need. I expect some fine work to be achieved by both of you working as a team.'

'I'm not working with her,' Draco said belligerently. 'Put me with a half-blood from one of the other Houses if you must, but I refuse to work with a Mudblood, especially with Granger.'

Snape moved rapidly to stand in front of Draco's workbench. He fixed his cold, dark eyes on the boy and said just as icily, 'I have decided that for this project you will be partnering Miss Granger, and I have no intention of changing my mind regardless of your feelings on the matter, Mr Malfoy. I have no doubt your new partner has little desire to be stuck with you either, especially given your propensity to muck around during class and your tendency to not bother with your work, but she has the forbearance not to complain about the situation. Your attitude is typical of the problems the Headmaster wishes to address and is therefore ripe to be looked at as a test case, so I would suggest you be aware of that in your future dealings with your new partner.'

'My father will hear of this,' Draco warned, his voice petulant.

Snape looked at him for a moment, then sighed loudly. 'I'm sure he will, Mr Malfoy. And if he queries it he will be told exactly the same as you. The remit of who works with whom within my lessons is entirely my decision and one by which you will abide. If you wish to continue complaining about the partnership I shall have you removed from the class which, I am sure I have no need to remind you, would severely impact your ability to complete the N.E.W.T. course and take the examination.'

Draco looked as if he had been slapped in the face, unable to comprehend why, suddenly, his Head of House had turned on him.

Looking stern, Snape added, 'Now, if you've quite finished with your objections I suggest you pack up your books and move to the workbench over there where I can keep an eye on you.' He pointed to a currently empty workbench directly in front of his desk, then turned to look at Hermione, who was sitting quietly, clutching her bag and looking no happier about the decision than Draco. 'You too, Miss Granger, chop chop. We haven't got all day, you know.'

Hermione stood up and slowly walked towards the workbench, looking resigned but unhappy. Harry gave her a sympathetic look as she passed him. With very bad grace Draco flung his belongings into his bag before storming across the room to the new seat he had been allocated. He glared at Harry, who was now paired with a Ravenclaw and hadn't had to move seats, wishing as he passed that he could wipe the smug look off the Gryffindor's face. Harry couldn't help but look pleased that the Slytherin had been castigated by Snape, who was well known for never punishing students from his own House, although he did feel sorry for Hermione for her poor choice of partner and sent her another sympathetic look. Finally Draco threw himself into his seat, turning slightly away from Hermione to make it clear he had no intention of working with her.

A few minutes later, once the class had completely settled and Snape had checked to make sure everyone was where they should be sitting, he looked down at a pile of parchments on his desk. He really hoped Malfoy wasn't going to continue to be so stubborn, otherwise Granger was going to find their project extremely hard going; although knowing the sort of girl she was he had no doubt she would do her best to try to complete it even without Malfoy's help. He just hoped that once the boy saw the complexity of the work involved his desire to achieve a good mark would override his hatred of Muggle-borns and they would be able to work together, finding, as Snape was sure they would, that they actually made excellent partners when given the chance. He waved his wand and the stack of parchments flew into the air and moved out across the room, dropping onto the appropriate desks.

'On the parchment you are just receiving are the instructions for your individual projects, which will be conducted throughout most of this school year. As you will soon see, they are both complex and time consuming. A great deal of your spare time will be spent working on them, giving you all ample opportunity to get to know your new partners considerably better,' Snape told them.

At the news that the project was going to last the whole year and would contain enough work to keep them busy during their free time as well as during working hours, a slowly growing rumble of complaint ran through the room. Everyone was thinking the same thing: surely they had enough work from all their other N.E.W.T. subjects to get through without adding a stupid Potions project to it?

Snape ignored the complainers and gave a cold smile before continuing, 'All of you have different projects with different objectives, so you will not be able to slide back into your usual partnerships to do the work with a view to passing it off later. These projects are designed to be extremely challenging as they will make up a considerable part of the mark towards your final exams, and will therefore need complete co-operation and commitment from each party to ensure the work is completed both accurately and in a timely manner. I will expect each pair to document the entire project, chronicling your procedures, explaining your decisions, and highlighting any areas of concern or particular achievement as the project progresses.

'This project will take most of the year to complete; I therefore intend to meet fortnightly with each pair to discuss how you are progressing and cover any concerns you may have. I shall produce a timetable for the meetings which will be placed on the noticeboard in your common rooms at the start of each month. It will be _your_ responsibility to check when your appointments are scheduled and to ensure that you attend, bringing with you all the work you have done up until that point. Please also note that unless one of you is seriously ill in the Hospital Wing or is in detention with another teacher and can provide a note to that effect, I expect _both_ partners to attend all update meetings.'

Hermione reached out for the parchment that was floating towards their workbench, but before she could take hold of it Draco snatched it away from her and turned his back on her completely as he began to read. Hermione sighed and settled back in her chair with a worried looking as she waited for Draco to finish reading. She hoped he would eventually let her look at what they were going to be required to do. Snape, having caught Draco's action, looked around the room at the rest of the students. It appeared that most of the Slytherins had acted like Malfoy; certainly all his close friends had copied his behaviour. Snape was aware they were the ones who would have the most work cut out for them to adapt as they all came from Death Eater backgrounds, and those from Slytherin House tended to be naturally secretive and didn't share very well, even with each other. But whether they liked it or not, they had to co-operate with their new partners, and they might as well start sooner rather than later.

'Please remember that there are _two_ of you working on each project,' Snape told the class, his voice a lush drawl. 'I expect you will be eager to brainstorm your ideas of how to proceed, and that can only be done once both of you have read the document. If it makes it easier, imagine the two of you share an invisible bond that ties you together. Everything you do in tandem will aid you in successfully completing the project, whereas trying to go it alone will do nothing but hinder. This will become especially clear in the later stages. I therefore suggest you read the document _together_, and for the rest of the lesson begin to take notes on your first impressions.'

There was more grumbling from various members of the class, but eventually everyone except Draco was facing forward and sharing the parchment. Some of them, he was pleased to see — although admittedly not the Slytherins — had even begun to discuss and take notes. Snape looked at Hermione, who was now drumming her fingers on the desk. He could understand her frustration and also her reluctance to engage with the boy with whom she'd had so many run-ins in the past. Malfoy was clearly not going to submit to the new partnership easily, and the boy having control of the project notes wouldn't help the situation. Snape realised he was going to have to intervene, even though he didn't want to. He stood up again and made his way over to the workbench Hermione and Draco were sharing. Hermione looked up at him nervously. Draco ignored the teacher, apparently completely engrossed in what was written on the parchment.

'Mr Malfoy, did you not hear me?' Snape asked quietly, his voice like steel. He waited for a moment as Draco, still looking bullish, lowered the parchment to look at him. 'I said you need to share the project notes with your partner. Please put them on the table where Miss Granger can look at them as well.'

Draco gazed at Snape eye-to-eye for a moment as if trying to outstare him but after a few seconds lowered his gaze. 'I'm not working with a Mudblood,' he said staunchly.

Snape's eyes hardened. 'I told you not to use that word,' he hissed. 'Give the parchment to Miss Granger immediately. I will see you at the end of the lesson.'

'I haven't finished reading it yet,' Draco said defiantly. He looked at Snape again as if daring him to do something.

'You have now,' Snape told him icily, without missing a beat. 'Give Miss Granger the parchment, pack up your belongings, and go and wait for me in my office. Do _not_ touch anything in there or you will be expelled. Do you understand?'

Draco stared at Snape with apparent loathing for a moment, then turned to sneer at Hermione and threw the parchment at her before leaning down to pick up his bag. Hermione caught hold of it and began to read, trying to ignore what was happening beside her. Draco stood up, and with another scowling look at both Hermione and Snape he turned and made his way towards the door of the Potion Master's study. Snape waved his wand and the door to the room opened. He watched as Draco entered, then used his wand to close the door behind him. He glanced once more at Hermione but she was already busy making notes about what she was reading, so he left her to it and went back to his desk to watch the last few minutes of the lesson slowly tick away. His heart sank as he thought of the upcoming confrontation with Draco.

Snape would win — he always did. Even Lucius' certain objection at the choice of partner for his son would hold no sway, especially since it was due to Dumbledore's edict. But that didn't make the task any easier or the argument he was about to have with the boy any more pleasant. Perhaps the couple working together without killing each other would be considered a success, although he still thought they could be the perfect partnership if they could just put aside their differences, they certainly both had the potential. But to ensure that he had to stamp out all this Mudblood nonsense. If he could at least stop Malfoy calling Granger by that foul name they might just have the faintest hope of a chance of succeeding at the project, and perhaps the boy would finally realise that, clever as she was, Hermione Granger was no different than him.


	2. Chapter 2

'Are you ready yet, Malfoy?' Hermione asked coldly.

She had been waiting for Draco for almost twenty minutes while he faffed around doing Merlin only knew what, and she was on the verge of telling him to go to hell. Although relations between them had improved somewhat over the weeks they had been working together on the project and he was no longer acting like the complete and utter tosser he had been for the previous six years she had known him, although he still apparently couldn't help but wind her up on purpose every so often and she was sure this evening was one of those times. She was already feeling jittery because of what they had to do; his being a prat really wasn't helping things. It wasn't as if she could take matters into her own hands and leave him behind, nor could she get someone else to go with her as Harry and Ron were both busy with their own partners — who were so much easier to work with than Draco Malfoy.

'Yeah, in a minute,' Draco drawled dismissively. 'I don't know what your rush is, Granger. We've got plenty of time to get it done.'

'I want to get it over and done with,' Hermione admitted. 'I can't relax until it's out of the way.'

Draco looked at her appraisingly for a moment, then sighed loudly. He slammed closed the book he had been pretending to read and put it in his bag as he stood up.

'Come on, then, let's do it. You're right — the sooner we go, the sooner we'll get back. I suppose we ought to start brewing this evening, too. We've got our meeting with old Snape tomorrow, haven't we?' He made sure he sounded bored, as if he was only doing this because he had no choice but to help her out and because he was fed up with her nagging.

'Seven thirty tomorrow evening,' Hermione confirmed as she followed Draco out the door of the Great Hall. 'I think we're doing okay, though, and our records are all up to date.' She was tempted to add, 'No thanks to you,' as Malfoy had been a lazy git and left her to do all the recording of the project so far. But Hermione knew she was something of a control freak and would have insisted on checking anything he did anyway, so it was probably better that she did it herself. She just wished she didn't have to go with him tonight, although being serious, it wasn't something he could do alone either, and their relationship wasn't yet so stable that she could suggest he take his cronies Crabbe and Goyle with him and leave her behind.

They walked out of the castle and down the hill in silence, each of them entrenched in their own thoughts. Whilst Draco had finally been forced to concede his position against working with Hermione and had grudgingly realised, once they started working together, that she really was an excellent partner for him — work-wise, at least — he still had a problem with her being a Mudblood. It prevented him from becoming too friendly with her, although he had stopped calling her by that name; mainly because of threats from Professor Snape to put him in detention if he didn't. He had been purposely prevaricating because he knew that waiting for him would drive Hermione mad, but also because if he was honest he had as little desire as she to undertake tonight's task. He wasn't scared, exactly, although his stomach still churned when he remembered his last visit to the Forbidden Forest. Hermione had been present on that occasion, too, and if anything she had been braver than him. Mind you, he had been stuck with that idiot Potter whilst she had been protected by the half-giant Hagrid, so she could afford to be brave. But tonight it would just be the two of them — the plants they needed weren't right on the outskirts, either, but a good fifteen or twenty minute walk towards the centre of the forest.

'I really hate this place,' Hermione said vehemently as they entered the dark and forbidding wood. 'If I never had to come in here again it would be too soon.'

'I have to admit it's not my favourite place to spend the evening,' Draco agreed. He pointed towards a path heading through some overgrown trees. 'It's over that way.'

Hermione gave a huge sigh. 'Let's go and get it over and done with, then.' She headed towards the path, her wand held out in front of her, providing only a little light in the gloom.

Draco was set to follow her but realised a little belatedly that, being male, he should actually be the one leading in order not to look like a coward.

'I'll go first, just in case,' he offered, and was pleased to hear that his voice sounded strong and steady.

Hermione smiled at him gratefully and he was surprised to realise it made him feel good. He passed by her and peered ahead of him as they walked rapidly towards the glade where the plants they needed grew. Although travelling fast, they were careful to keep quiet, not wanting to draw attention to themselves from any of the forest's many inhabitants. There were too many dangerous creatures roaming through these dark trees who would be happy to consider them as dinner. The walk seemed to be taking an eternity, even though they were both moving at a good pace, and Draco began to wonder whether they had taken a wrong turn somewhere.

Some distance away through the trees something was moving, the noise of crackling twigs giving away its position. Draco listened carefully. It wasn't anywhere near them and whatever it was hadn't howled or made any other scary noises, so it was probably just a thestral or a centaur, although he wasn't keen on bumping into even one of them in the dark. He could feel his heart hammering in his chest. He would definitely be glad once they reached their destination, got the ingredients, and made it back out of the forest, hopefully to never have to go in there again. Silently he cursed the inventor of the potion Snape had given them for deciding that the ingredients could only be collected after dark on the night of a new moon. He bet the man had never had to make a journey as dangerous as the one he and Hermione were undertaking. He cursed Snape, too, as the teacher must have known what he was doing by giving them the potion to make as part of their project.

Draco jumped, his heart skipping a beat, as Hermione slipped her hand into his and gripped it tightly. He didn't say anything, just held onto her as they continued along the path and eventually made their way out into the dimly lit glade. He heard Hermione let out a sigh of relief that they had arrived safely and she released her grip on his hand, moving away slightly as if she was embarrassed at what she had done.

'You collect left, I'll go right,' Draco told her quietly. 'We'll meet in the middle, then get the hell out of here.'

Hermione nodded, and still without saying anything she headed left. Draco wondered whether fear had made her lose her voice. He could understand how that could happen, and out here in the dark he didn't feel inclined to rib her about it as he would normally do. Realising that he was just standing there while Hermione was already picking plants, he moved towards a large clump of Midnight Iris.

Hermione felt sick. She was trying to pick the plants they needed as rapidly as possible but she was aware that whatever had been making a noise in the forest was still out there and it sounded as if it was getting closer, which caused her to shake with nervousness and slowed her down. She felt embarrassed that she had grabbed hold of Draco's hand, needing the reassurance that she wasn't alone, but it had made her feel better somehow and because of that she hadn't turned tail and run as she had been scared she might. She wasn't sure she could speak, though. Draco had sounded so confident when he offered to go in front; she felt a bit silly for feeling so scared when he obviously wasn't. But she didn't dare say anything to him in case he took the piss out of her. She definitely didn't need to give him ammunition; he already had more than enough bad feelings toward her. What she had to do was focus on getting finished and returning to the castle, where she could reward herself with a nice large mug of hot chocolate to take away the chill that was seeping through to her bones.

'How are you doing?' Draco asked, his voice taut and cold. He had finished collecting and was fighting the urge to leave Hermione behind.

'Almost there,' Hermione replied. Her voice sounded small and breathy and had a scared quality to it. 'Gods, I really want to be back at the castle.'

'You and me both,' Draco said.

He realised that Hermione being so scared had actually helped to make him less so, the need to protect her suddenly overwhelming him. He hurriedly walked over to where she was still picking clover and bent down to help her. They had just finished and packed the plants carefully in Draco's bag when the noise that had been worrying them earlier came again, this time far closer. They looked at each other anxiously. Whatever was making the noise was heading their way, and fast.

'What do you think it is?' Hermione whispered. She automatically moved closer to the blond boy.

Draco scanned the area rapidly. He couldn't see anything but he could definitely hear it. Whatever it was, it was large and relentless. He jumped as he saw movement in the trees ahead of them and instinctively grabbed Hermione's arm, pulling her towards the path. For a moment she seemed to be frozen but as the noise grew louder she moved, too, her breathing shallow and thready as terror rose inside her. Suddenly there was a great sound of branches being torn up and a thundering of hooves. Without a second thought Draco pushed Hermione against a tree, shielding her with his body as several centaurs charged past them, seemingly taking no notice of the couple.

Draco stayed pressed against Hermione for another couple of minutes, waiting until the forest was still and silent again. They were so close he could feel her almost hyperactive breath hot on his neck and wasn't sure if what he felt was the rapid patter of her heart or his own.

'Centaurs,' Hermione whispered with relief. She sounded as if she was on the verge of tears. 'It was just centaurs.'

Draco moved back to release her and allow her to move away from the tree.

'Let's get out of here,' he said quietly. 'Those centaurs were agitated and I think they were looking for something.'

'I wonder what,' Hermione said as they hurried along the path. Her mind turned to the last time she had been in the forest, back in their fifth year; she thought of Grawp and of the way the centaurs had attacked the giant before taking away the horrid then-Headmistress, Dolores Umbridge, who had deserved everything she had got, as far Hermione was concerned. She shuddered.

'I don't really care as long as we don't come into contact with it,' Draco replied honestly.

'There's that noise again,' Hermione said quietly a few minutes later. She looked worriedly about her as the noise of twigs snapping got louder. 'I don't think that's the centaurs, Draco.'

He took her hand and squeezed it sympathetically. 'Don't worry, we'll be fine just as long as we stay on the path. It's behind and to the side of us.'

Draco was glad that once again he sounded fearless, as it certainly wasn't how he was feeling. Still holding Hermione's hand, he pulled her along more rapidly as he listened to the sound of the approaching creature, trying to gauge where they were likely to intercept it. She was right that it wasn't the centaurs returning. Whatever it was, it was making a grunting noise as it stomped through the undergrowth. From the corner of his eye he thought he spotted something slightly ahead of them, but it could have been a trick of the shadows that filled the area, the new moon doing little to light up the dark forest. He heard Hermione draw in a sharp, scared breath and knew she had seen it too.

'We need to run,' he told her urgently, releasing her hand. 'Don't worry about anything except getting out of the forest. Just keep to the path and run as fast as you can. I'll be with you.'

'But it's ahead of us,' Hermione moaned. She sounded terrified.

'That's why we need to run,' Draco said keeping his voice even in an attempt to soothe her and keep himself from freaking out. 'If we go now we should get ahead of it. Hopefully it will continue on its current path and we'll get away without any further interaction. But we need to go now, Hermione.'

Hermione nodded but didn't move any faster. She was sure she had seen something ahead of them and was certain that running in that direction would take them straight into its path. But there was no other way out of the forest, at least not one that wouldn't take forever and be at least as dangerous as, if not more dangerous than the path they were already on.

'Come on, Granger,' Draco hissed. He could hear her scared breathing and knew she was stalling, but they had to go, and go now. Loudly he said, '_Run!_'

As if his shout had freed her from some sort of invisible chains, Hermione was finally able to move. Draco's sharp voice cut the bonds that held her, the terror lifted, and the need to escape made adrenalin surge through her veins. She ran, desperately trying to focus only on the path in front, her wand giving a small bobbing light ahead of her that she followed. And then there was a crashing sound close to her on the left and a loud bellowing grunt, and suddenly a forest troll, all pale green skin and brown straggly hair was rushing through the undergrowth towards her. Hermione screamed in terror but didn't stop running. Draco, who was slightly ahead, turned his head and cursed as he saw the troll change its route, now chasing after them.

'Faster, Granger,' he gasped, worried that the troll with its huge stride was gaining on them and would soon catch them up. He pointed his wand at the troll.

'_Stupefy!_'

The troll grunted and slapped at its body where the spell had hit it as if it was swatting a fly, but it didn't even slow down. Draco swore again and desperately tried to think of a spell that might at least halt it, but his brain wasn't working. Abandoning the idea of hexing the troll, he turned and fled, catching up with Hermione who had overtaken him as he cast the spell. They looked at each other for a second, both of them with pale, scared faces, then ran at full pelt, not caring about the noise they were now making in their desperation to get away.

There was another bellow, sounding close but fortunately no closer than before, but then Hermione gave a long, terrified scream that chilled Draco's blood right down to the bone. He turned his head to look at her but she was no longer there. It took him a few seconds to stop and another to turn round, and his heart clattered horrifyingly as he looked at the sight before him. Hermione was sprawled on the floor, obviously having tripped or something, and she was trying to stand with little success. Her wand, which she had dropped in the fall, lay just out of reach. Coming towards her far more rapidly than Draco liked was the troll. A little voice in Draco's brain was urging him to turn and flee, to forget about Hermione, reminding him that she was a Mudblood and he was better off without her — another few seconds and the troll would get her, and then it would be too late anyway. Ignoring the voice, Draco darted forward to help Hermione up.

She screamed again as she realised the troll was closing on her. Her ankle was too badly damaged by the fall to allow her to stand; she couldn't even reach her wand to defend herself. She turned and stared at the oncoming troll, her stomach churning with fear and screamed again, a sound full of terror and pain, then gasped as Draco pushed her wand into her hands and scooped her up.

Not bothering to see where the troll was as he already knew it was too close for comfort, Draco ran, not as fast as before because of Hermione, but still fast enough to put a little breathing space between them and the troll, who grunted in rage at Hermione's rescue. Ignoring everything but the edge of the forest, which must surely be close now, Draco ploughed onwards, determined that they would escape at any cost. He was so focussed on trying to keep running that he almost the missed the sound of the centaurs as they reappeared, crashing through the undergrowth to his right and surrounding the troll, which screamed in rage as it realised its quarry was about to escape. The troll swung at the centaurs then roared again when several shot arrows at it.

Draco didn't see this as he was too busy running. A huge sigh of relief escaped his burning lungs as he burst out of the forest and into the meadow beyond. He didn't stop, although he did slow a little; Hermione's weight, although not unbearable, was beginning to tire him. Once they had got a safe distance from the forest he stopped, and sinking to his knees in the long grass he gently released Hermione.

'Are you all right?' he asked wheezily, gazing at her worriedly as he gasped for breath.

'I'm fine,' Hermione answered, sounding sheepish. 'I'm so sorry, Draco. I got my foot caught in a tree root or something and went straight over. I think I've twisted my ankle. I can't put any weight on it.'

'At least we made it out,' Draco said with relief. 'For a minute I didn't think we would.' He moved closer to her and pulled down her sock, looking at the already swelling ankle. 'That looks painful; it might be broken.'

'I expect it's just a sprain. I'm sure Madam Pomfrey will fix it in a jiffy. I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be able to work on the potion this evening,' Hermione said as she stared at him gratefully. She was ashen-faced and clearly in pain.

Draco, now fully recovered, picked her up again. 'Don't worry about that. We've got plenty of time. We'll start on it tomorrow once we've both recovered.'

Hermione, her heart still pounding, wrapped her arms around Draco's neck. 'You quite literally saved my life, Draco,' she said quietly. 'Thank you.'

Before Draco had a chance to respond Hermione kissed him. Her lips were soft and her breath was warm and sweet as her mouth covered his. Draco pulled her closer and kissed her back, ferocious in his response. They continued kissing for several minutes, and when they finally broke apart they looked at each other a little awkwardly, neither really sure what to say.

Draco was the first to speak and his voice sounded huskier. 'I should get you back to the Hospital Wing. You need to get your ankle looked at.'

He imagined for a moment how it would look to his friends, him carrying Hermione into the school, but then he thought about the kiss they had just shared and decided he didn't care.

Hermione, who had turned a faint shade of pink, shook her head. 'Take me to Hagrid's.'

Draco looked disgusted. 'What use is that oaf going to be? You need to get to the Hospital Wing, Hermione.'

'I know. But if you take me to Hagrid's he'll carry me up there, which will save your back and let you save face with your friends,' Hermione explained matter-of-factly. Draco looked at her in surprise. 'You don't want your friends to know you missed a chance to get rid of me, do you? That would really ruin your nasty Slytherin hard-man image,' she added with a grin.

Draco looked uneasy for a second as he thought guiltily about the little voice that had tried to make him leave Hermione to the troll. Had she realised that he had considered letting her die?

'I don't mind carrying—' Draco started, astonished to find himself admitting it.

Hermione put a finger over his lips to stop him from saying any more. 'Take me to Hagrid's.' She released her finger.

Draco stared at her for a moment, then he kissed her again.

'Hagrid's,' Hermione told him when he finished.

Her heart was beating so fast she thought it was going to erupt from her chest, and she was sure she was shaking. She had no idea why she had kissed Draco in the first place, except that she had felt so grateful for what he had done for her that a simple thank you just didn't seem to be enough. She had even less idea why Draco had kissed her the second time, but she knew she liked it. She also knew that nothing could ever come of it. At the moment both their emotions were running high on giddy euphoria at surviving the encounter with the troll, but soon things would return to normal — Draco would still be a bigoted pure-blood Slytherin and she a Muggle-born Gryffindor — and whilst their relationship might have been slightly strengthened by their experience tonight, there was no way Draco would ever see her as anything other than a worthless Mudblood. His family upbringing wouldn't allow it.

Draco carried her to Hagrid's hut although they didn't speak, both of them immersed in their own thoughts. He stopped outside the door but seemed reluctant to knock for some reason.

'He's not going to bite,' Hermione said with amusement.

'I'm aware of that,' Draco replied tartly.

'Don't worry, I'll explain to him what happened. Anyway, he needs to know about the troll in case the centaurs don't manage to rein it in.'

Seemingly mollified by this explanation, Draco stepped forward so Hermione could knock on the door.

Immediately Fang, Hagrid's massive boarhound, started barking and they heard Hagrid's gruff voice telling him to calm down. A moment later the door opened and the half-giant stood in the doorway looking down on them. The light from the room beyond streamed through the door around him and made the teacher impossible to see except as a massive shadow.

''ermione, is that you? Are you alrigh'?' he asked worriedly. He moved forward to gently take her from Draco. 'Wha' happened?'

'There's a troll in the Forbidden Forest,' Draco said. 'The centaurs were dealing with it but we thought you ought to know.'

'Wha' were _you_ doing in the Forbidden Forest?' Hagrid asked Draco coldly as he placed Hermione onto one of his large seats.

'We had to get the ingredients for our potion,' Hermione explained hurriedly, realising that Hagrid was suspicious of Draco and his motives for doing anything. 'The recipe specified that it had to be after dark on the night of the new moon. We got the plants, but then there was this noise and a big green troll came after us. We ran but I tripped over a tree root or something and twisted my ankle. To be honest, I thought I was going to get eaten, but Draco picked me up and got us out of there and then the centaurs turned up and they were attacking it.'

Hagrid turned to look at Draco, regarding him a little less suspiciously at Hermione's words.

'Thank you for 'elping 'ermione, Malfoy. It was good of you,' he said, trying not to sound too grudging.

Draco shrugged. 'Anyone would have done the same. I should be getting back to the castle, I suppose . . . that is, if you don't mind carrying Hermione up to the Hospital Wing?'

'Course I will,' Hagrid assured him. 'I jus' need to go and check wha' the centaurs have done first and we'll be right up.'

'I'll see you tomorrow, Draco,' Hermione said with a smile. 'And thank you again.'

Their eyes met for a moment and Hermione could feel the start of another blush as she remembered the kisses they had shared. Draco smirked at her and she felt herself redden even more.

'I hope Madam Pomfrey sorts your ankle out okay. I'll see you in the morning,' he said, and turning, with a wave he left the hut.

'Are you alrigh' to wait here while I talk to the centaurs or do you need to get your ankle seen to immediately?' Hagrid asked solicitously. He offered Hermione a cold, wet tea towel to put on the sprain.

Hermione took the tea towel and wrapped it around her ankle, wincing as she did so. 'I'll be fine to wait. You need to make sure the troll's sorted out. We don't want it getting into the castle.' She shuddered at the thought.

'Malfoy was very 'elpful . . . which isn't like him at all,' Hagrid said thoughtfully.

'He saved my life,' Hermione replied fervently. 'If Draco hadn't come back to get me and then carried me all the way out of the forest the troll would have got me, Hagrid. He was incredibly brave tonight.'

'I still don't understand why he was so 'elpful, though. 'e's never made any effort to be nice to you before, 'ermione,' Hagrid pointed out.

'We've been working together on this Potions project and I think maybe it's made him change his opinion of me a little,' Hermione said. 'It's changed mine, too, especially after tonight. I mean, he's still a prat and unfortunately still prejudiced against Muggle-borns, but he hasn't called me a Mudblood for over a month so he's definitely improving.'

'I'll be back soon,' Hagrid said as he opened the door. Fang rushed outside, barking joyfully, and the half-giant followed him.


	3. Chapter 3

Hermione looked around her, wondering where Rachel had got to. She had expected her friend to wait for her, although to be fair there had been quite a queue in the loo. She didn't really like hanging around on her own as it made her feel self-conscious; these days she was no longer confident around Muggles, having spent most of her time with wizards. She debated for a moment whether to head into the main club area to look for her friend but changed her mind when the door swung open and a group of people headed in to join the throng. From the amount of noise that billowed out the briefly opened door and the glimpse she caught of the crowd inside, Hermione realised that if she went in, Rachel would never be able to find her. There were far too many people in there and the music was too loud for sustained conversation. She leant back on the wall, tapping her foot against the brightly painted concrete as she waited for Rachel to come back from wherever she had gone. A few minutes later, just as Hermione was beginning to worry that something had happened to her friend, Rachel burst out of the door, smiling as she headed towards the waiting girl.

'Mia, come and meet a friend of mine called Adrian. I didn't realise he was going to be in tonight but I just bumped into him at the bar. He's quite eager to meet my best friend as I've told him loads about you.' She looked at Hermione's face, which showed a trace of reluctance, and raised her hands in supplication as she shook her head, flicking her long dark hair. 'Don't worry, I haven't been trying to set you up with him. I just said you were here and he wants to meet you as he's heard me talk about you a gazillion times. You're going to love him, honestly. He's the loveliest bloke I've met in ages . . . and he's a blond. I know you've got a real thing about blonds.'

'I don't have a thing about blonds,' Hermione retorted in surprise. 'What on earth makes you think that?'

Rachel laughed. 'Of course you do. All the guys you've ever fancied were blond. You've always been quite picky about it, whereas I've never been as fussy as you. As far as I'm concerned a hot boy is a hot boy, regardless of hair colour.'

'Well, you're definitely right about you not being fussy. You went out with Nigel Dover and he was gross,' Hermione said with a slight grimace.

Rachel shook her head. 'He wasn't _that_ bad. Anyway, I only went out with him so his older brother would notice me . . . now _he_ was hot.'

Hermione wrinkled her nose. 'What, Paul? I didn't think much of him either.'

'He wasn't blond, though, was he?' Rachel said wickedly, as if that proved her point. 'I told you, every bloke you've ever been interested in has been blond.'

'Not all of them were,' Hermione insisted, and she flushed as she thought for a second about Viktor Krum, and then of Ron with his bright red hair.

'So you've become less picky these days, have you?' Rachel asked, sounding amused. 'Then again, I suppose you would have to, stuck at boring boarding school where the selection doesn't change much. Or do you get a chance to go out clubbing? What do you normally do at weekends?'

Hermione shrugged, ignoring the barb about the type of men she fancied. 'Not much, to be honest. We're only allowed out of school once a month to visit the local village, and that's during the day. It's got a couple of pubs but that's about it. There are definitely no nightclubs involved. Actually, I'm not sure the wizarding world would know what a nightclub was.'

'Once a month . . . that's barbaric! Tell me there are at least places you can go on school grounds to have a bit of fun,' Rachel said, looking horrified at the idea of being allowed out only once a month.

'It depends what you mean by fun,' Hermione replied cagily. 'Sport is very popular at Hogwarts and there are plenty of different clubs.'

'What, like chess club? How incredibly snore-inducing. I'm amazed you haven't died of boredom at that place. So what about places to get a bit jiggy — Hogwarts does have those, does it?'

'Jiggy, what does that mean?' Hermione asked laughingly. 'We have parties in the common room sometimes and they usually have music, if that's what you mean.'

'Don't you play dense with me, little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes, you know exactly what I mean,' Rachel said with a wicked smile. 'I'm talking about places to get up close and extremely personal with a sexy boy. I mean, I assume there are _some_ sexy boys at your school?'

'Surprisingly few for such a big place, actually. And there's a lot of politics, which creates a lot of bigotry unfortunately.' Hermione frowned as Rachel looked at her inquisitively. She waved her hand as if to dismiss the comment. 'It's hard to explain the situation, especially without being depressing — and tonight is definitely _not_ about being depressing. If you really want to know, ask me about it tomorrow before I go back to school.'

'But there must be _some_ hunky wizards there, surely?' Rachel persisted. 'What's the point of having all that magic if you can't use it to look hot?'

Hermione laughed. 'Very few people use magic to change their looks, Rach. It's far too dangerous mucking around with that stuff. Eloise Midgen tried to get rid of her acne a few years ago, but that went really badly wrong and she ended up losing her nose.'

Rachel looked horrified. 'Her nose! What happened to her?'

Hermione chuckled. 'Don't worry, the school nurse re-attached it for her. She was fine afterwards and her acne has begun to clear up a bit, finally.'

'So there are no hotties at Hogwarts at all?' Rachel sounded disappointed.

Hermione grinned. 'I didn't say there were _none_, just that there were very few. Anyway, as we've just established, you and I have a very different idea of what's hot, so maybe you'd think the whole school was full of them, especially if you think the Dover boys were such a good catch.'

'So come and meet Adrian and then you can tell me what you think of him. He's an interesting guy and he's handsome as hell, but sweet as anything . . . at least he has been every time I've met him.'

'Is he at school with you?' Hermione asked interestedly.

Rachel shook her head. 'No, I met him here at the club. He's been coming regularly since the holidays started. I probably shouldn't get involved with him really, but I'm just looking at it as a holiday fling type of thing — just a bit of fun. Although actually, I reckon he might be more your type.'

'Why, because he's blond?' Hermione asked drily.

'No, because he's a bit odd and I think he goes to boarding school, too,' Rachel said musingly.

'Great, you think he'll suit me 'cos he's odd,' Hermione huffed, although she said it good-naturedly.

'I didn't mean like that, Mia. What I mean is that he's not your typical bloke, although there is something a bit strange about him — maybe he's one of your lot in disguise. Anyway, I just think he might be your type. He's really handsome, really thoughtful . . . and he's blond.'

Hermione sighed. 'Sounds like the perfect man to me, but I can't believe he's thoughtful _and_ handsome. Those two things rarely go together in my experience. Usually those good-looking guys know it and feel pretty entitled.'

Rachel looked interestedly at Hermione. 'Is that experience talking?'

Hermione shrugged. 'No, not really. Although I do know one or two real arseholes who think they're god's gift to the world, and one of them is blond.' She sighed. 'Rach, please tell me we didn't come here just so you could fix me up with some bloke that you think's a bit too weird for you.'

Rachel laughed. 'No, of course not, we're here for a girls' night out. I honestly didn't even know Ady was going to be here tonight. But it would be rude not to talk to him now we know, wouldn't it?'

Hermione reluctantly agreed and Rachel took hold of her hand and led her through the door into the club and over towards the bar, then tapped a tall blond-haired boy on the shoulder. Hermione watched in surprise as he turned to reveal the face of Draco Malfoy.

Before she had a chance to say anything Draco said hurriedly, and sounding equally surprised, 'So you're the lovely Rachel's best friend, are you? What's your name?'

Hermione's eyes narrowed. 'Hermione,' she said coldly. 'But you already know that, don't you, Dr—'

'My name's Adrian,' Draco replied smoothly, cutting her off before she could say his name. His eyes glinted as he looked at Hermione and he took her hand, bringing it to his lips to kiss it. 'It's a real pleasure to meet you, Hermione. Would you like a drink? I was just about to get one.'

'She'll have a glass of dry white wine, the same as me . . . and make them large,' Rachel said with a smile. She gave Draco a kiss on his cheek. 'Don't worry about Mia, Ady. She can be a little shy and prickly until you get to know her, but you'll soon find she's got a wicked sense of humour . . . and she's got a real thing about blonds.'

'Has she?' Draco asked sounding interested, his eyebrows rising in amusement as he said it.

'Rachel, I do not have a thing about blonds. I don't know why you keep saying that,' Hermione retorted shortly.

'That's because you do, sweetie, even if you don't want to admit it. There might not be much talent at that school of yours which is why you've had to look elsewhere recently, but you have to admit that a blond always makes your heart flutter.' Rachel gave her a big grin, her dark eyes glinting wickedly.

Hermione shook her head at her friend in exasperation but didn't bother replying. She could feel her cheeks burning and was glad it was so dark in the club that no one could see them. What she was more interested in was what Draco was doing there and why he was pretending to be someone else and she could feel her anger at him rising as she thought about the fact that he was toying with her best friend, her best friend who was a Muggle. Had he known Rachel was Hermione's friend and targeted her specifically? If so she wasn't going to be very happy with him for putting her friend in danger and she wanted to know how he knew. Draco had finished buying the drinks and turned, handing Hermione a glass of wine. She thanked him but was unable to keep the cold tone out of her voice.

'So tell me more about your interest in blonds, Hermione,' Draco said, clearly winding her up.

'I don't have a thing about blonds,' Hermione replied stiffly. 'Rachel thinks I have because I don't like the guys she fancies. We just have a completely different taste in men, that's all.'

'Really?' Draco managed to sound disappointed. 'So I take it that means you have no interest in me, then?' His eyes glinted again.

'Straight in for the kill, eh?' Rachel said with a laugh. 'You're not wasting any time, Ady.' She turned to Hermione. 'Didn't I tell you he was adorable?'

'As I said, you and I have completely different taste in men,' Hermione responded tartly. She sipped her wine, trying to calm down. She couldn't let Draco rattle her and she needed to find out what he was doing with her friend.

'Don't you like him?' Rachel asked, her voice by Hermione's ear as she tried to talk quietly but over the sound of the music. Hermione shrugged. 'I know he's been a bit forward with you, but I think that's 'cos he likes you.'

Hermione had to bite back the snort of derision that almost came to her lips at that comment and she shook her head. 'I think you're way off, actually. I think he's just being a wind-up merchant.'

'Perhaps you should dance with him, get to know him a bit better,' Rachel suggested.

'I've no desire to get to know him better,' Hermione retorted but Rachel was already turning away to talk to Draco again.

'Let's dance,' he said a few minutes later, as the latest song had changed the music to something a little slower. He held out his hand to Hermione as Rachel tried to take her drink away from her.

'I don't really want to dance,' Hermione said, but she knew she would have no choice so there was no point in prolonging the protestations. At least she could use the time to find out what Draco was up to.

'What the hell are you doing here?' she hissed at him as they moved away from Rachel, Draco holding her rather more tightly than she felt entirely comfortable with.

'I've been coming to see Rachel,' Draco said matter-of-factly. 'She's a wonderful girl and I like being with her. I was trying to spend as much time with her as I could before we have to go back to school.'

'She's a Muggle, so why would you be interested in her?' Hermione asked, her voice pinched and suspicious. 'And why are you calling yourself Adrian? I should tell her that you're lying to her.'

For a moment Draco squeezed Hermione tighter still, as if in anger, but then he relaxed a little. His pale eyes found hers and gazed deeply into them.

'I didn't mean to get involved with her, honestly, Hermione. I met her a week ago and we got talking, then went for a drink together. She's pretty, intelligent and fun to be with and she obviously quite liked me so I carried on seeing her. It isn't serious, although I have to admit I would love things to go further. I think she's fantastic.'

'It wasn't because of me, then?' Hermione asked.

Draco gave a sharp bark of a laugh. 'Amazingly, very little of what I do has anything to do with you, Hermione. I didn't even know she was your friend until this evening. She had talked about her best friend being at boarding school but she never mentioned your name, at least not your real one, and as she's a Muggle it never even occurred to me that the friend she was talking about might be you.'

'She's always called me Mia,' Hermione told him, 'since we were about four. She couldn't say Hermione at that age and Mia stuck as a pet name.'

'Of course she'd told me so much about this fantastic friend I couldn't wait to meet you,' Draco said. 'Imagine my surprise when it was you standing there.'

'Well imagine my surprise when I discovered you were called Adrian,' Hermione retorted. 'Why did you lie to her?'

'I was being careful,' Draco admitted. 'As I said, I really like Rachel and didn't want to put her in a difficult position, so I told her I was Adrian Pucey.'

'But you're nothing like Adrian Pucey.'

'She doesn't know that, though, does she?' Draco pointed out.

'But I still don't understand why you didn't just tell her the truth,' Hermione said.

Draco looked at her in exasperation. 'Think about it, Hermione. You know what my father's like, and I'm sure you can imagine how he'd react if he found me "fraternising" with a Muggle. Imagine, his wonderful pure-blood son becoming a blood-traitor. It would make him furious and Merlin only knows what he would do, and not just to me. But if Adrian Pucey was caught with a Muggle he wouldn't care. Oh, he might make a joke about it or say something disparaging, as it was a Slytherin letting the side down, but he wouldn't feel the need to get personally involved.'

'Adrian's dad might, though,' Hermione pointed out.

'They're not Death Eaters,' Draco said dismissively. 'Adrian's dad probably couldn't care less. He'd more than likely just be glad his son had finally managed to pull a woman.'

'I understand why you did it, but that doesn't mean it was right. You lied to my best friend,' Hermione told him, still sounding annoyed.

'I thought those two knobs you hang around with at school were your best friends,' Draco said. 'What on earth are you doing with a Muggle best friend, anyway? How the hell did you manage to keep that relationship going when you had to keep Hogwarts a secret?'

'Harry and Ron are my best friends at Hogwarts, but Rachel has been my best friend all my life — and I haven't kept it a secret from her,' Hermione admitted.

Draco looked at her in surprise. 'But telling a Muggle who isn't a relation about our world breaks all sorts of wizarding laws, Hermione. You could be in real trouble.'

'I didn't really have any choice. Rach and I had been inseparable since we met at playschool. We're more like sisters than friends. We planned for years what we were going to do when we went to secondary school . . . and beyond. When I discovered I was a witch it completely ruined everything. How was I supposed to keep that a secret from the person I loved most in the world after my parents? So I told her about everything, the magic and Hogwarts, and made her swear to keep it a secret. And she has. We talk about it when we're alone, but never when we're with other friends.'

'You have other Muggle friends, too?' Draco said, sounding astonished, although Hermione couldn't work out whether that was because he was surprised she had friends or that they were Muggles.

'Not really any more,' Hermione admitted with a sigh. 'We were friends with some other girls until I went to Hogwarts. We told them I had to go to a special school as I was so intellectually advanced. I had always been at the top of the class, even in junior school. Some of them were a bit jealous, I guess, and stopped talking to me completely, but to be honest Rach and I had always been a bit out from the group. I was actually worried for a while that they wouldn't accept her and she'd be alone and lonely once I went off to Hogwarts, but as you've discovered, she's such a lovely girl that everyone wants to be friends with her. So now when I come back home during school holidays I spend a majority of my time with her, and sometimes that includes her other friends.'

'I actually think it's great that you've managed to keep a Muggle friend for so long,' Draco said. 'It's very rare. Has she never asked to see Hogwarts?'

'She did in the early days. I used to write her long letters so she could visualise the place, but she understands about the concealing charms and knows she would never be able to see it as we do and that dulled the interest for her somewhat,' Hermione replied. She grinned. 'Anyway, I think these days her interest is more in the _occupants_ of Hogwarts than the buildings and the wizardry. My dear friend does have something of a one-track mind.'

'And you have a thing for blonds,' Draco added. He pulled her a little tighter again.

Hermione stiffened. 'I told you, that's complete rubbish. It's just Rachel's perception based on a few boys I've been out with that she knows about.'

'Shame, I was sure you fancied me,' Draco said with a smile. His voice was suddenly huskier.

'Dream on,' Hermione told him brusquely as she pulled away from him. 'I've had enough of dancing. Are you going to tell Rachel who you really are?'

'I hadn't intended to,' Draco admitted. 'Why, are you going to force me into it?'

Hermione shrugged. 'I'm not sure it matters, actually, as we're going back to school tomorrow. She thinks you're cute but a bit too odd for her. I guess she's picking up on your magic, however well you're trying to hide it.'

'Really? That's rather disappointing to hear,' Draco said, sounding a little crestfallen. 'I really like her and I thought we were getting on pretty well.'

'Oh, you were. But for some reason she's decided you suit me better.' Hermione gave a small grimace.

'Perhaps we should give it a go, then,' Draco said wickedly, pulling her back towards him. 'Especially now I know your love of blonds.'

'Oh, for Merlin's sake, Draco. For the last time, I do _not_ like blonds any more than I like anyone else,' Hermione said exasperatedly. 'And even if I did, _you_ wouldn't be on the list.' She pulled away from him once more. Her voice got harder as she continued, 'I won't say anything to Rachel at the moment, but if I find out you've lied to her about anything else or she ends up in trouble because of you I will tell her, so just make sure you treat her right.'

Draco grabbed hold of Hermione's hand to stop her from walking away. 'Don't worry. I've got no intention of letting her get into trouble. I promise you she'll be fine.'

Hermione realised he was stroking her hand, and feeling uncomfortable, she began to flex it to make him let go.

'We should get back to Rachel,' she mumbled.

'She's trying to pair us up so I'm sure she's not worried about us leaving her alone for a couple of minutes,' Draco pointed out.

'I don't want to talk about this any longer,' Hermione said, and pulling her hand from his she walked back towards the bar where Rachel was waiting for them, not waiting to see what Draco would do.

'You and Adrian make a nice couple,' Rachel said jovially as Hermione joined her and picked up her glass of wine.

Hermione shook her head. 'Nothing's going on there, so stop pushing, Rach.' She took a large mouthful of her drink.

'Oh, I dunno, I think Adrian's quite interested. He was certainly holding you tightly enough.'

'Well, he might be, but I'm not,' Hermione told her bluntly. 'So can we just get on with having a good evening and forget about trying to pair me up with someone I've no interest in?' She took another large swig of her wine to indicate that as far as she was concerned the subject was closed.

Rachel smiled again. 'Of course. Do you want to go and dance again? I've got the urge to set the floor alight with some wicked moves.'

Hermione drank the last of her drink and put her now empty glass back on the bar. 'Let's do it.'

She followed Rachel onto the dance floor, and if she wondered where Draco had gone it was only for a moment. 

* * *

><p>'Please say you forgive me,' Rachel said, her voice wheedling.<p>

She sounded miserable, Hermione thought, but she was sure that was just a front. She knew her best friend wasn't really feeling guilty at all. Despite all her assurances to the contrary, Rachel had spent her entire evening stirring things up between Hermione and Draco, not realising what she was dredging up with her stirring. And it was fairly and squarely her fault that he had . . . Hermione clamped down on the memory. She didn't want to think about what had happened, or how she had reacted. But at the end of the day Rachel was still her best friend; she couldn't have known what an error she was making in attempting to set the two of them up.

She just thought Hermione was being shy; she didn't know the real situation between them. Hell, she didn't even know Draco's real name. In all the years Hermione had been at Hogwarts she had rarely told Rachel about the problems she faced as a Muggle-born, not wanting to upset or worry her friend. She thought a few times she might have briefly mentioned the boy who had made it his mission to make most of her school life a misery, just to get the frustration out of her system. But she was fairly certain she had never mentioned his name. Of course, even if she had, Rachel would still not have made the connection since she knew him as Adrian not Draco.

'Please, Mia, talk to me. Tell me you're not angry with me.' Rachel's voice sounded even more miserable when Hermione didn't answer immediately.

Hermione sighed loudly. 'Of course I'm not angry with you, Rach. I can never be angry with you, you know that. But I did tell you I wasn't interested and I wish you'd just listened to me for once. You put me in a really difficult position with Dr . . . Adrian.'

Rachel sighed, too. 'I know, and I'm sorry. You're right, I shouldn't have interfered. But he's such a nice guy and I felt really bad about letting him down, and it was so obvious that he likes you, and you made such a lovely couple when you were dancing, and I just thought . . . .' Her voice trailed off guiltily.

'I know what you thought, but you were wrong,' Hermione said, her voice a little colder than she had meant it to be. She heard a slight gasp which told her she had upset Rachel with her comment. Relenting, she said more gently, 'But it doesn't matter, I love you anyway. Are you coming round? I need to get packed up for going back to school tomorrow and I can't go out until I'm sorted. I've got a shed-load of washing that needs doing and I really need to go through my trunk and see what junk's accumulated in there. You're welcome to join me.'

'I'll be round in ten minutes,' Rachel said, clearly sounding much happier now. 'I can't think of anything I'd like more than to help you with a load of chores.'

'The quicker we get it done, the quicker we can do something more interesting,' Hermione pointed out.

'Okay, okay, I'm on my way. See you later, 'gator.'

'In a while, crocodile,' Hermione added, a smile on her face as she recalled the hundreds of times they had ended their calls that way. She put the phone down and walked back to the washing machine and bent down to sort out the huge pile of washing. 

* * *

><p>'Oh my god, I have to say the look on your face when he kissed you was absolutely priceless,' Rachel said with a laugh. She was lying on her back on Hermione's bed looking up at the ceiling, her long, dark hair fanning out around her. 'And I still can't decide who looked more shell-shocked once it finished — you or Adrian.'<p>

Hermione was holding up two books and debating which, if either, she needed to take back to school with her. She dropped one on the floor and opened the other and rapidly flicked through it. She closed the book with a thud and placed it on the floor to her left, then picked up the other book and did the same.

'Me, I should think,' she said offhandedly. 'I wasn't expecting the kiss nor did I want it.'

'Well, for someone who didn't want a kiss you reacted pretty well,' Rachel pointed out slyly. 'I thought you were going to suck each other's faces off.' She grinned. 'I was on the verge of telling you to get a room because it was getting indecent.'

'It was just a kiss,' Hermione retorted as she pulled a stack of parchment towards her and flicked through it, although her cheeks burned as she spoke and as she remembered the kiss. If she was honest it had been quite passionate, more so than the ones that had happened between them on the night of the Forbidden Forest incident, but it didn't mean anything. It was just another stupid one-off and didn't really require thinking about or being treated as anything other than what it was.

'Well, whatever it was, you both looked pretty stunned when it ended,' Rachel said. She rolled over on to her front and hung her head off the end of the bed as she watched Hermione add another book to the ever-growing pile to her left.

'Can we not talk about this?' Hermione asked, more interested in the books she was checking than a conversation about the previous night. Without thinking, she added, 'Draco kissed me because you put him up to it. It happened, it's over, and nothing else is going to happen, so let's just stop talking about it, shall we?'

'Who's Draco?' Rachel asked with a frown.

Immediately realising her mistake, Hermione silently cursed herself — and Draco. She hadn't been concentrating and his name had slipped out without thinking. She dropped the book she was holding and stood up to join Rachel, who had now sat up and was looking upset.

'Adrian is Draco,' she admitted guiltily with a sigh. 'He's a boy in my year at Hogwarts. I think I may have mentioned him a few times in my letters to you, although maybe not his name. He's the one Harry, Ron, and I have always had problems with because of his crappy attitude. I told you last night there was a lot of bigotry and nastiness at Hogwarts, and unfortunately Draco is one of its biggest proponents.'

Rachel looked shocked and hurt. 'But I thought he was so nice. He was always so kind and attentive to me. I thought he liked me, but obviously he was lying all along. And now you say he's an enemy of yours, Mia? Does that mean he only got to know me to get at you? Is that why he didn't tell me what his name really was? And why did he kiss you if you hate each other so much?'

Hermione shook her head. 'He definitely _wasn't_ using you, Rach, especially not to get at me. He had no idea you and I were even friends. You never told him my real name so he had no idea it was me until we met at the club. And although I know you won't believe me, he actually changed his name because he really likes you and was trying act nobly for once in his life. I know he's an idiot, but this time he was trying to do the right thing, which is why I didn't tell you he'd lied about his name.

'As for things between me and him, they've improved a little this year as we've been working together on a Potions project, but I wouldn't really call us friends — and certainly no more than that. The kiss was just a way for him to wind me up — which was all because you said I fancied blonds — although actually he winds me up on a fairly regular basis anyway. But that's why there's nothing more to it and why I was so annoyed at you trying to match-make.'

'But I still don't understand why he lied to me,' Rachel said. She looked really hurt.

Hermione took her hands and gave a small sigh. 'Look, I'll try to explain it to you, but not here. Let's go and grab a coffee or something. I could do with a break from packing.' She stood up, then, feeling she should say something more, added, 'Please don't think too badly of Draco. He really does like you . . . and you did reject him, remember.'

'Well, I'm glad I did now. At least we didn't do anything but kiss a few times,' Rachel said bitterly. 'Although I feel terrible knowing I pushed so hard to get the two of you together. No wonder you were unhappy with me, Mia.'

Hermione's stomach constricted at Rachel's words. She had no idea why, although maybe it was because she had been worried that her friend had done more with Draco than just kiss. She was certainly relieved that it hadn't gone any further between them.

'It wasn't specifically because it was Draco. To be honest, I would have been the same with anyone, Muggle or wizard. I'm not really in the market for a boyfriend at the moment,' Hermione insisted. 'I'm sure you'll understand better once I explain it. If it's any consolation, I think you saw a side of Draco that most of us at Hogwarts don't ever get to see. Circumstances mean he wears a very particular type of mask when he's at school.' She held out her hand and pulled Rachel from the bed. 'Come on, then, old girl. I fancy a cake, actually. Shall we go and get one from the bakery? I can explain as we go.'


	4. Chapter 4

Hermione had been feeling strange ever since she got on the train for school. Part of it, she knew, was because of what had happened between her and Draco in the club; she wasn't particularly eager to have to face him when remembrance of their kiss, and the ones previous to it, were still so prominent in her mind. She also didn't want to have to admit that she had given away his secret, albeit accidentally. She suspected he wasn't going to be too happy about that, even though it was unlikely, considering Rachel's rejection of him, that he would be spending any time with her best friend in the future.

As she anticipated, Rachel was shocked and worried when Hermione explained about Muggle-borns and pure-bloods and the hatred that infected the wizarding world. Her best friend was horrified to learn of Draco's past and was profusely apologetic once more about the way she had tried to push Draco and Hermione together. Hermione reassured her once again, then went on to explain why he had pretended to be someone else. At first Rachel hadn't been particularly understanding which was, of course, only to be expected. She was, after all, feeling hurt at his deception, however good his reasons for it were, and Hermione knew that had she been in her friend's shoes she would have felt exactly the same. But eventually Hermione had managed to make Rachel realise that what he had done was because he genuinely cared about her, and as her friend's sudden hatred of the boy began to wane, Hermione found herself pleased by the outcome. She wasn't entirely sure why she was going to such lengths to redeem Draco's name when he had always been so generally unlikeable, but suddenly it seemed important that she do so. As she considered it later on the train on the way to Hogwarts, she wondered whether in some small way it was repayment for him saving her life, something for which she was still extremely grateful although she hadn't told anyone other than Hagrid and Rachel about it.

Hermione had suffered nightmares for several weeks after that night in the forest, and although not every dream was about the troll, every one of them contained the same fears and anxieties. There was always a moment when Hermione was about to fall prey and there was that piquant terror that Draco would leave her this time, would choose to not save the Mudblood who been the bane of his life for so many years. But in dream after dream, like a knight in shining armour, Draco had rescued her and Hermione, grateful and relieved beyond belief, had kissed him, just as she had done in real life.

But she didn't want to think about the kisses; those sweet and heady moments of madness that made her heart pound and her blood race; those tiny fragments of joy that she wanted to cling to while they were happening but wanted to forget almost as soon as they were over. No, she most definitely did _not_ want to think about the kisses.

Although Hermione would have preferred to keep away from him, Draco came to find her almost as soon as they got to Hogwarts, reminding her that they had a meeting that evening with Professor Snape to discuss the project and that they needed to catch up and work out what they were going to say to him. She felt a little guilty at her desire to hide from him, especially as he had been nothing but pleasant to her, and soon found herself agreeing to get together with him after Arithmancy class, their final lesson of the day, as both of them had a free period afterwards. They left the classroom and walked together in silence toward the door to the castle, intending to go and sit down by the lake as the weather was unseasonably clement and sunny.

They sat there, Hermione feeling somewhat awkward and still feeling a little guilty at what she had done. Not wanting Draco to speak first and say something she didn't want to hear, Hermione bit her bottom lip nervously and said, 'Rachel knows your name isn't Adrian.'

Draco's eyes flashed with annoyance but his voice was calm as he asked, 'Why did you tell her? You knew I wasn't going to see her again. Did you do it on purpose to make sure?'

'It was an accident,' Hermione admitted ruefully. 'I was packing for school and she was talking about the club and about you and . . . .' She broke off for a moment as the conversation about the kiss came into her mind, and she blushed. 'Anyway, I wasn't really concentrating on the conversation because I was trying to sort out my books, and in reply to something Rachel said I mentioned your real name without thinking about it. Of course once I'd said it I couldn't unsay it; so then I had to explain.'

Draco looked a little hurt. 'So she probably really hates me now, then.'

Hermione shook her head. 'Of course she doesn't. I don't think Rachel is capable of hating anyone. She was hurt when she found out you had lied to her, of course she was, but I explained why you did it and I think she understands. She certainly doesn't think any less of you for it.' She touched Draco's arm soothingly. 'I really am sorry, Draco. It was honestly a complete accident . . . but it would never have happened if you hadn't lied in the first place.'

'It doesn't really matter now. As I said, I won't be seeing her again so it's in the past, and my father isn't likely to find out, which was the only reason I did it as I told you at the time.' Draco pulled his arm away from her, then added brusquely, 'Shall we review our notes for our meeting with Snape, then?'

Hermione opened her bag and pulled out a large notebook, which she opened to the last populated page. She glanced down at the words she had written although she really had no need to. She knew exactly where they were in their project and she didn't need notes to remind her. Draco lay down on the grass, stretching out in the weak sunlight before turning onto his side, his head resting on his hand as he watched her intently.

'Potions one, two, and three are completed and are awaiting potion four before we combine them. I've made a list of the problems of making all the potions and potential problems with potion four, not least of which is getting ingredients,' she said matter-of-factly.

Draco grinned. 'Actually I've managed to get hold of most of the rarer ingredients for the next potion and I've got the rest on order to be delivered by the end of the week. There are still some plants that we need to get ourselves, but fortunately they can be picked in the daytime — so no more late-night jaunts into that bloody forest.'

'Are we going to mention to Professor Snape how we nearly died getting the ingredients for potion three?' Hermione asked.

'He probably wouldn't care,' Draco retorted. 'Knowing him, he'd say it was our own fault for not being better prepared.'

'Well, I still think we should mention it. I've put it in my notes because it's something people need to be aware of. Even if that troll's gone now there are always dangers lurking in the forest, and one day someone's going to get hurt . . . or worse. Now, what about timing for the fourth potion? It takes two full days of brewing once all the ingredients have been added, but it takes almost a full week to add them. I'm just conscious that we've still got a long way to go, and if the ingredients aren't going to be arriving for a while yet. . . .'

'We can start on it tonight after we've finished with Snape,' Draco told her. 'If we go to the forest now to get the other plants we need, we'll have all the base ingredients and most of the intermediate ones. By the time we need the others they should have arrived. If not, we can ask Snape if we can borrow from his store cupboard and pay him back when ours arrive.'

Hermione nodded but then, thinking about Snape's threat to Harry back in their fourth year when he thought he was stealing from his potions supplies, she said, 'You'll have to ask him, though. He won't give them to me.' She closed the notebook and put it and her quill and ink back into her bag.

Draco chuckled and sat up. 'That's not a problem. He's been far better disposed towards me since he realised we really are working together.' He stood and held his hand out to Hermione to help her up, too. 'Shall we go and pick the other plants now? I know neither of us is probably keen to go back into the forest, but at least it's a lovely sunny afternoon — and the sooner we get it out of the way the better, I say.'

Hermione felt a little knot of dread in her stomach at the thought of going into the forest again, even in the daytime, but Draco was right. It was better in the sunshine and at least they wouldn't have to go so far in this time. Feeling a little self-conscious, she took his hand and stood up, throwing her bag over her shoulder.

'I suppose we ought, but you're right, I don't really want to go in there again.'

'I expect it's quite pretty in there in the sunshine,' Draco said soothingly. 'You never know, we might even see unicorns. It's not just nasty things that live in the forest, is it?'

'So do I owe you any money for the ingredients? Some of those things must have been quite expensive,' Hermione said as they walked across the meadow towards the forest.

Draco sounded smug, as if he'd pulled off a coup. 'No. They didn't cost me anything because I got my father to buy them for me. I told him it was vital for the project so he didn't even query it.'

'That was very good of you,' Hermione said. 'You didn't have to, I would have been happy to contribute.'

Draco looked at her intently. 'I'm sure you would,' he said with a smile. 'But I've covered it, so don't worry.'

He took her hand again as they entered the forest and Hermione realised she was rather glad. She hadn't understood until he did how nervous she was, and the warm touch of Draco's hand gave her comfort and strength.

'See? I told you it's enchanting in here,' Draco said quietly as they walked through the trees, the sunlight slanting down between the branches giving the area a warm golden glow. He pointed towards a clearing to the left of them containing dog rose bushes twined with sweet-smelling honeysuckle clustered around a small pond filled with water lilies, which had winged creatures flying all around it. 'I think they're fairies, aren't they? Shall we go and see?'

He led Hermione over to the quiet glade and they watched the fairies flittering around the bushes, their sparkling iridescent wings catching the sunlight.

'They're beautiful,' Hermione whispered, smiling as she listened to the croaking of frogs that were sunbathing on the lily pads. She was no longer scared; the remembrance of the troll and the scary things in the dark were replaced by the shining goodness of the day.

'You're beautiful,' Draco told her quietly.

He had moved closer to Hermione, and as he spoke he reached out his free hand to gently stroke her cheek. Still holding her hand, he pulled her to him and wrapped his arm around her body as he bent to kiss her, his warm lips capturing hers in a soft kiss that seemed to go on forever.

Shaken, Hermione pulled away from him. Her voice was quavering as she said, 'I think we should go and collect the plants.'

Draco grabbed at her hand and pulled her back towards him. 'The plants can wait for a few minutes, Hermione. They're not going anywhere.'

Then his lips were on hers again, his tongue exploring her mouth as his arms wrapped tightly around her, holding her close to his body, not willing to release her under any circumstances. Between kisses he whispered, telling her of his desire, of his feelings for her. Hermione's heart was racing again and she was unable to stop herself from kissing him back, desiring the intimacy just as fervently as Draco. Now they were sinking to the ground, on their knees at first as they continued to kiss, but then they were lying on the soft grass, Draco possessively taking control and pushing Hermione down beneath him, his pale grey eyes gazing deeply into her darker brown ones, his lips meeting hers once more.

. . .

The sun wasn't as high now; long shadows sent dark tendrils creeping inch by slow inch across the glade and the fairies were beginning to leave, drifting away in groups. The frogs were still singing, now joined by the sound of crickets. Draco looked at his watch. It was almost time for dinner. Amazing how quickly time had gone once he started kissing Hermione. He would have been happy to continue but he was aware it was getting late and he didn't want Hermione getting scared again as the shadows plunged the forest into darkness and the temperature dropped steeply. They needed to get the plants they had come for and leave. He felt a small pang of regret inside him, aware that the intimacy between them was over . . . for today, at least.

'Let's get those plants before it gets dark,' Draco said, holding Hermione's hand again.

He led her from the glade back onto the path heading for the area of the wood where the plants they needed grew. Neither of them spoke as they gathered the plants or on the journey out of the forest, each of them buried in their own thoughts — Hermione attempting to process what had happened between them, Draco trying to fight down the urge to grab her once more.

Once they reached the meadow, Draco pulled Hermione to a stop and grabbed hold of both her hands.

'This has to be a secret between us,' he told her, although his heart was reluctant to do so, knowing what Hermione's reaction was likely to be.

Hermione looked at him appraisingly for a moment. 'Why's that?'

'You know why,' Draco replied. He felt uncomfortable now. Surely she wasn't going to make him say it out loud, was she?

'Because I'm Muggle-born.'

The words hung in the air like an accusation and Draco winced as if he had been slapped.

'You know how things are,' he said, realising he sounded a little pathetic. 'My father—' He broke off, feeling suddenly ashamed.

'—would kill you,' Hermione finished for him. 'And me, too, I expect.'

Draco squeezed her hands tightly. 'I really like you, Hermione. You must know that by now, surely.'

'What, the way you liked Rachel?' Hermione retorted, unable to keep the hurt from her voice.

Draco shook his head. 'No. You know there was nothing between Rachel and me, not really. A few kisses, but nothing more and there was never going to be.'

'No different from us, then,' Hermione told him tartly. 'And there won't be anything more between us either, Draco. Not if it has to remain a secret. I can't live like that. I'm sorry.'

'Hermione . . . please. I'm trying to be sensible about this. You know we can't go public.' Draco's voice had a pleading quality to it that Hermione had never heard before.

'Then _we_ can't be, because I need all or nothing,' Hermione answered quietly, realising she was shaking. She dropped Draco's hands. 'I'll see you at Professor Snape's office at seven thirty, then I suppose we should start work on the potion.'

Draco was tempted to try to stop her from leaving but he knew it would do no good. There was nothing more to say. He watched as Hermione hurried back up the hill towards the castle, then followed slowly behind, his hands in his pockets as he meandered back to the school, sighing loudly every so often. Hermione was absolutely right to feel the way she did, he couldn't argue that; but for him there was no other choice, however much he might desire it. And it wasn't as if he hadn't thought about it. He had, several times since their first kiss; had imagined the two of them walking through the school holding hands as they talked quietly to each other, their attraction obvious to everyone else. But it just couldn't happen.

Draco dreaded to think how his father would treat him if he discovered his son was a blood-traitor, but actually he was more worried about what Lucius would do to Hermione. As friend to Potter and the brightest student in the school, she was already well-known to his father and Draco knew he detested her, especially after her part in his incarceration after the raid at the Ministry of Magic back in their fifth year. From what he had heard at the time his father had attempted to kill her, and Draco had no doubt that if he discovered his son's feelings for Hermione he would finish the job he had started then without any care about how it would affect Draco — assuming he didn't kill him, too.

But Draco knew his father wasn't his only consideration. As a member of Slytherin House his family's beliefs had given him cachet and status, of which he had always been only too happy to take full advantage. To be unmasked as a blood-traitor to those on whom he had so blatantly forced his superiority would leave him open to ridicule and derision. Life as a Slytherin at Hogwarts was difficult enough already without having the entire House turn on him for something they would see as disgusting and unnatural, not to mention pointless. He would go from being their brightest star to someone who made even Neville Longbottom seem like a decent pure-blood, and he wouldn't even be able to count on his friends to support him or even understand his desire for Hermione.

All his close friends shared his beliefs — that was why they were his friends — and nothing he could tell them would ever convince them that perhaps those beliefs were wrong. To them he would just be a blood-traitor, someone to be pitied or reviled. With the enemies he had made throughout the rest of the school over the years he was unlikely to find any help or succour from anyone in any of the other Houses; not that he would want it, the shame would be too great. It was a depressing thought, but however deep his desire ran for something more with Hermione, he couldn't give up everything he had for her.

The problem was that he wasn't sure how he was going to be able to continue working with her when all he wanted to do every time he saw her was kiss her . . . and more. 

* * *

><p>Working with Draco had become increasingly difficult for Hermione and she wasn't entirely certain what she was going to do about it. It had been bad enough in the immediate aftermath of their last visit to the Forbidden Forest when they were both prickly about the discussion they'd had, which for her had ruined what until then had been a perfect afternoon. But several weeks had now passed and the atmosphere between them had been building up; the feelings both of them were suppressing were bubbling beneath the surface of every interaction between the couple. She had hoped the respite of a short school holiday back home with her parents and Rachel without any reference to Draco would ease things, but on her return to Hogwarts it soon became clear that nothing had changed. It was beginning to affect their work, and Hermione was worried that unless something was done to sort the situation the entire project would be ruined.<p>

It didn't help that she had no one to talk to. She hadn't wanted to mention it to Rachel, knowing that if her friend wasn't still feeling touchy about Draco's behaviour she would probably advise Hermione to go for it anyway, citing her supposed love of blonds as a reason the two of them should be a couple, and pointing out that things would be better between them if they were together, even if it was in secret, rather than being miserable apart. Harry and Ron were definitely not people she could confide in either with regard to romance or Draco, and the combination of the two was a definite non-starter. She had briefly considered talking to Ginny but she had no desire to share her problems with the whole Weasley family, which she suspected was what would happen if she told the red-haired girl about Draco. And whilst Neville was a good listener, he would have no advice to offer that could be taken seriously.

But even if she had someone to talk to, Hermione wasn't entirely sure what she would say to them. Her feelings for Draco had always been complex and had become more so since they began working on the project together; the dislike she had always felt for the blond boy had evaporated as she got to know him better. He was handsome and she was sure she didn't think that purely because he had blond hair. Over the years she had heard many girls raving about him so she knew she wasn't alone in her belief. But he had also turned out to be thoughtful and sensible and his intelligence was on a par with hers, which certainly made a nice change and made him an interesting and knowledgeable partner to work with. She had spent quite some time considering whether a relationship of the type Draco had suggested would work for them; after all, she understood entirely why he didn't want his father to find out about his feelings for her — that was dangerous for them both. But the truth was that she didn't want to creep around keeping secrets from her friends, even though it would undoubtedly be easier than trying to explain to them why her feelings had changed for their up-until-then mortal enemy.

But easy or not, Hermione knew her main objection to a secret relationship was one of pride. As with every girl her age, the idea of being in a romantic relationship was an exciting, even breathtakingly dizzying one for her and she wanted people to know that she was more than just the bookish swot everyone thought she was. A boyfriend would give her a new facet to her character that would stop all the whispering she knew happened behind her back as the girls of the school discussed why she had never had a relationship after Viktor Krum had gone back to Durmstrang. She was well aware that this was an incredibly shallow reason to want Draco to turn against everything his family and friends believed in, but she couldn't stop the feeling; which was why every time she considered whether there could be a future for her and Draco as a couple in secret, she rejected it.

But spending so much time in his company wasn't helping to dull the desire she felt for him. It was making it worse. She was also becoming distracted and skittish, which was affecting her concentration and, by extension, the quality of her work, so there had been several failed potions now and the likelihood of more was growing all the time. She was permanently on edge, worried that Draco would try to kiss her again or that, as had happened on the first Forbidden Forest night, she would lose control and kiss him. If there was to be no relationship between them, then there was to be no kissing, either, however pleasant it was. In order to regain her equilibrium she needed reassurance that both of their minds would be only on the project and nothing else. But she didn't feel she could talk to Draco about it, either, as that would mean a difficult conversation that she really didn't want to have, especially if he was then going to try to convince her into a relationship again.

They were due for another meeting with Professor Snape, and Hermione had briefly considered whether she could perhaps discuss her issues with Draco in a one-to-one meeting with the Potions Master. But he wasn't the most pleasant teacher and she suspected he wouldn't be sensitive to her problem, especially after the way he had reacted to their complaint about their late-night jaunt into the Forbidden Forest — Draco had been accurate in his guess at how the snarky teacher would react. She could already imagine his sarcastic voice berating her for letting such a stupid thing affect her work, and she was fairly certain that with his close ties to Draco's father and being Head of Slytherin House he would be just as judgemental as the blond man who had already given her so much grief over the years, and might even alert Mr Malfoy to the situation, which would be disastrous for both her and Draco. No, Professor Snape would not be any help and there was no one else. Unfortunately, there was still too much of the project left to complete to go it alone, and as Professor Snape had hinted at the beginning of the year, as it progressed, working together had become more and more important. So she and Draco were stuck with each other. The only thing she could do was focus on the work and give Draco no chance to kiss her again.


	5. Chapter 5

Hermione gasped, her heart pounding. Draco had just grabbed her and pushed her up against the rough stone wall as his lips found hers. Completely unprepared for the assault, she found herself automatically kissing him back before sense finally took control of her brain and she pushed him away. She had no idea what he was doing there but assumed he must have followed her, one of the few people in Professor Snape's N.E.W.T. Potions class to have gone to Hogsmeade that day as most of the class were far too involved with their difficult projects to worry about a day off and a visit to the local village they had been to loads of times before. In truth, Hermione would have been happy to give it a miss, too, but with the exams edging ever closer she had gone through three quills, two bottles of ink, and almost the whole of her notebook in the last month and she didn't have enough spare supplies to last until the next visit, so she'd had no choice but to give up some of her precious time to go.

After a quick stop at Scrivenshaft's to pick up her stationery she had guiltily spent a little time wandering round Tomes and Scrolls in hope of finding a new book to read as a break from all her revision, although she was unsuccessful. She had then headed into Honeydukes armed with a long list of requests from her various Gryffindor friends who weren't in a position to leave the school themselves, and after purchasing quantities of pumpkin fizz, Chocoballs, treacle fudge and even some Chocolate Frogs, she began to make her way back to the school. It was as she was walking down the quiet lane by the Hogs Head pub that Draco accosted her.

'Stop it, Draco,' she said angrily, her stomach doing somersaults of excitement. She had enjoyed the kiss far more than she wanted to admit. She glanced about her hurriedly to make sure there was no one around to see them.

'You don't really want me to stop,' Draco told her, his voice a lush drawl. His hand stroked her cheek as he gazed at her avidly. 'You want me as much as I want you, Hermione. Don't deny it.'

Not answering Draco's comment, she said, 'I told you I'm not interested in having a relationship with you if we have to keep it a secret. And that means no more kissing.'

'But I like kissing you,' Draco said honestly. He leant forward to kiss her again but Hermione turned her head away from him and pushed him backwards.

'I told you no. Now let me go.' She glared at him and writhed, trying to get out of his grasp.

Draco gave her one of his smug grins but he didn't release her.

'A few kisses is nothing to worry about. It's not like I'm trying to get you to do anything else . . . although I have to admit I'd be happy if you would.' He gave a small laugh at Hermione's outraged expression at his comment, then added, 'Just relax, Hermione. Things have been a bit tense between us since that rather wonderful afternoon in the forest. I just want to get rid of that tension.'

'Well, doing this isn't going to help,' Hermione bit back. 'It just makes things worse.'

'If that's the case then perhaps it's time for you to admit that we should be together, even in secret,' Draco said, his voice more serious now.

Hermione shook her head. 'I told you, I can't do that. Accept it — you and I will never be a couple, Draco.'

Draco's smile didn't fade as he replied, 'Oh, I don't know. I think things are going to change soon.'

'What does that mean?' Hermione asked. A sudden chilly tendril of anxiety ran up her spine at Draco's words.

'The Dark Lord is going to help us with our relationship,' Draco said mysteriously.

Hermione looked at him in surprise, the cold feeling growing inside her.

'The Dark Lord? How the hell is Voldemort going to help our relationship? It's because of him and his bloody stupid ideals that we're stuck in this situation in the first place, Draco. I don't think he's going to bend over backwards to help us.'

'He knows how I feel about you,' Draco said quietly. He was stroking Hermione's cheek again. She was so distracted by the turn the conversation was taking that she didn't even notice and did nothing to stop him.

'What do you mean, he knows? How the hell does he know and _why_ would he know? More to the point, why would you _want_ him to know when you're already terrified your father will find out? I think Voldemort is a little worse than your father,' Hermione said, unable to comprehend what she was hearing.

'I saw him last night,' Draco admitted.

Before he could say anything else Hermione blurted out, 'Last night? What were you doing with Vol—' She broke off and glanced towards Draco's left arm, where his hand was still caressing her cheek, and imagined what was under the long-sleeved shirt. Pulling her head back, she looked at him in shock as she whispered, 'You're a Death Eater.'

Draco nodded slowly. Hermione gave a harsh gasp as if she had been holding her breath, waiting for his reaction.

'Harry was convinced you'd become a Death Eater last year,' she said, her voice sounding disbelieving. 'Ron and I didn't believe him because I didn't think Voldemort would take anyone so young . . . or that you'd be that stupid.'

Draco gave a harsh laugh. 'The Dark Lord will accept anyone who shares his beliefs regardless of age, Hermione. Anyway, I had no choice after what you and your bloody annoying little friends did to my father at the Ministry of Magic. I had to join Lord Voldemort and become a Death Eater to restore the Malfoy name. My father was disgraced by what happened to him.'

Hermione looked a little contrite. 'I'm sorry that happened, Draco. But to be fair, he was the one who lured us to the Ministry in the first place and then tried to kill us. It wasn't our fault he was caught. If he hadn't done it he would never have ended up in Azkaban.'

Draco looked angry for a moment but tried to quell the feeling. He knew Hermione had a point, but that didn't change anything.

'So why did you tell Voldemort about us?' Hermione demanded.

Draco gave another bitter snort of a laugh. 'You don't have to _say_ anything where the Dark Lord is concerned. He can read minds without you even knowing he's doing it. Occlumency works to a certain extent but I'm not very good at that yet, and anyway I didn't realise he would be reading _my_ mind.'

'So he saw. . . .'

'That afternoon in the forest,' Draco admitted. 'And the other times, too. And he saw how I feel about you . . . how much I want you.' He gazed into Hermione's eyes. 'I don't just want to kiss you, Hermione. I'm sure you must be aware of that by now.'

Hermione sighed, feeling suddenly uncomfortable at Draco's confession. 'I know, but I've told you before I can't have a relationship with you and I've absolutely no idea how you think Voldemort knowing about your interest in me is going to help.'

'He wants me to bring you to him,' Draco admitted.

Hermione stared at him in horror, not sure she understood what he had just said.

Draco explained, 'He wants to use you to lure Potter in because he's sure he'll want to rescue you. He told me that if I brought you to him, he would give you to me.'

'And you believe him?' Hermione asked disbelievingly, her voice rising several octaves in panic. She wasn't sure whether she was more shocked that Voldemort was attempting to use Draco to get to Harry via her or that Draco was really convinced that the vicious wizard would actually do what he said.

'He promised me,' Draco said, sounding confident. 'He told me he wouldn't hurt you, Hermione. He just needs to use you as leverage. Once he's got hold of Potter he'll give you to me and then not even my father can do anything to stop us. It'll be perfect.'

Hermione shook her head, looking worried. 'That's never going to happen, Draco. Do you really think Voldemort wants us to be a couple? Think about it. He _hates_ people like me. There's no way he would want me tainting your perfect pure-blood line. He's using your desire for me to get you to help him, but he has no intention of delivering on his end of the bargain.'

'You don't know that,' Draco retorted, sounding a touch petulant. 'The Dark Lord _promised_ me.'

'He's a megalomaniac,' Hermione pointed out, trying to remain calm even though her heart was pounding and her stomach was roiling with anxiety. 'Of course he would tell you that. But he has no intention of keeping his promise to you. Anyway, you can't just give Harry up to him. That would be a disaster for the whole world.'

'You think that, but I'll be glad to see the back of him,' Draco muttered.

Hermione shook her head. 'No, don't say that, Draco. You don't mean it. I know you don't get on with Harry and Ron but I'm sure you don't wish them dead . . . or me.'

'You're not going to die,' Draco told her, deliberately ignoring her comment about Harry and Ron.

'But that's the point, don't you see?' Hermione said unhappily. 'If you take me to Voldemort and he really does manage to kill Harry, then then no one will be safe. The best outcome that could possibly come out of that scenario would be that _you_ would survive. But I would be dead, I can assure you of that.' Draco shook his head but before he could respond she continued, 'No it's true, Draco. If Harry dies, Voldemort will have no one to stop him taking control of the wizarding world. You know how he feels about my kind so the first thing he'll do is get rid of the Muggle-borns . . . all of us. He's not going to make an exception for me, regardless of what he's promised you.

'Think about it seriously for a minute. Getting rid of the Muggle-borns would just be the start. His hatred of Muggles will lead him to fight them, too. I've heard about the new statue in the atrium of the Ministry of Magic that shows exactly what his intentions are where they're concerned. Whilst some people might be able to escape overseas it won't do them much good for long, because I'm sure world domination is well within Voldemort's mad plans.' She broke off for a moment, the idea of what Draco could possibly set in motion with his desire for her making her upset and emotional, the sick feeling moving like waves in her stomach. 'If Voldemort takes control, my beautiful and kind best friend, who you told me you think so much of, would be killed just for being a Muggle. Is that really what you want, Draco: Rachel chased, tortured, and murdered in cold blood just for daring to be alive? And where will it end? It's too easy to imagine what will happen once Voldemort takes control of the UK's armed forces, once he has access to Muggle weapons, to their stockpile of nuclear bombs. It would only be a matter of time before he started world war three and brought about the end of the world. So being dead might actually turn out to be better than being alive.'

Draco wrapped his arms around Hermione, pulling her close to him to try to comfort her.

'That's not going to happen,' he said, although his voice sounded less certain now. 'The Dark Lord promised me you wouldn't be harmed and I'm one of his Death Eaters, one of the inner circle, Hermione, not just some pure-blood off the street. I promise you everything's going to be okay and we will be together.'

Hermione sighed and tried to pull out of Draco's arms once more. Staring directly into his eyes, she tried pleading with him once again.

'You have to face the fact that you're a blood-traitor now, whether you like it or not. Your friendship with Rachel was enough to ensure that, as is your desire for me, and now Voldemort knows it, too. At the very least he'll want to get rid of me for turning one of his Death Eaters, and at worst he'll kill both of us as a warning to anyone else who crosses him. Please see, Draco, that if you give me to Voldemort you'll be signing my, and probably your own, death warrant.' She gripped his hand hard. 'I know you want to believe what Voldemort has told you, and because you don't like Harry that's probably enough for you to want to be on the side opposing him. But what's going on here runs far deeper than petty hatred and jealousy.'

Hermione was pleased to see Draco hesitate while he thought about what she had just said, but the fact that he didn't immediately agree meant he was still considering taking her to Voldemort, his conviction that this would give him the relationship he wanted still fighting for supremacy over common sense. She had to do something before he made the wrong choice, and while she was outside Hogwarts she was vulnerable. Somehow she had to get him to take her back to school. Once there, Voldemort would be unable to get to her and she would be safe.

In desperation she reached out to stroke Draco's face, pulling him from his thoughts. He looked at her in surprise.

'Look, if you want a relationship with me then we'll have one, but please don't take me to Voldemort.'

'But I promised the Dark Lord I would bring you to him, Hermione,' Draco said unhappily. 'That's my task and if I fail then I'll have disgraced the name of Malfoy, just as my father did.'

'No, you won't, because you won't fail,' Hermione told him. 'Let's go back to school. Once we're inside the grounds of Hogwarts we'll be safe. You can't take me to Voldemort from in there because you can't Apparate, and with the Potions project I'll be too busy to leave school grounds so there won't be any chance for you to do it. You won't have failed, you just won't have had the chance to take me.'

Draco hesitated for several minutes as he considered her proposal as Hermione waited tensely to see what he was going to do. Eventually he nodded and moved back from her a little so she could move away from the wall, although not out of his grasp.

'This isn't just a trick to get me to let you go back to school, is it?' he asked suspiciously. 'You meant what you said about you and me getting together?'

'Of course I did,' Hermione assured him. 'But I really want to go back to school now. It's not safe until we do. We'll talk about it once we get there. Please?'

Draco gazed at her for a few seconds then nodded his head again. 'All right. I won't take you to the Dark Lord now, but I just hope you're right about him accepting that I couldn't get you away from Hogwarts.'

'He will as long as we get back to school without anyone from Slytherin seeing me,' Hermione replied sensibly. 'If I'm not seen then no one can say I ever left the school grounds, and that's the only way you could have taken me to him. Anyway, we need to get back. The potion needs to come out of stasis this afternoon.'

'I suppose I should let you walk back alone,' Draco said. He didn't sound very happy at the prospect.

'I need to get back to school without being spotted,' Hermione told him. 'Anyone seeing the two of us together is going to remember that.'

Draco still looked as if he didn't want to let her go, and for a moment Hermione began to panic that he would change his mind and take her to Voldemort after all. She stroked his cheek again.

'Meet me in the lab in forty-five minutes,' she said quietly, then leant forward and gave him a brief and tender kiss.

Without saying anything, Draco stared at Hermione for a moment, then stepped further back, allowing her to leave. He watched as she walked hurriedly up the road towards the school and then, after a few minutes, he followed at a much slower pace. 

* * *

><p>Ever since agreeing not to give Hermione to the Dark Lord, Draco had waited for the promised relationship with her to begin. But although they spent some time kissing — admittedly a considerable amount of time — it never went any further than that. He had managed to cop a feel of Hermione's breasts through her blouse once or twice during the snogging sessions, but she was completely unforthcoming with anything more intimate. Every time he tried she pulled away from him, no longer even interested in kissing but instead talking once more about the bloody project and how far behind they were getting.<p>

Draco no longer cared about the project except during Potions lessons. All he wanted was to make love to Hermione, and he was beginning to feel cheated. Although he understood the concerns she had mentioned when they were in Hogsmeade, and deep inside he knew she was probably right, sometimes he still couldn't help wishing he had taken her to the Dark Lord as he had promised to do. Mainly it was because of that terrible gnawing feeling that he had let down the family name by not completing the task he had been set, which occasionally made him feel sick when he thought about what his father or the Dark Lord would say or do if they discovered what he had done. But although he tried not to think about it, he knew there was also a little part of him that was convinced that if he had done it, something a little more interesting than kissing and potion-brewing would have taken place between him and Hermione by now.

_You're driving me bloody mad_, Draco thought as he leant against a workbench, watching bad-temperedly as Hermione, having pulled away from him as she did far too often for his liking, headed over to where their latest potion was set up, picking up her wand as she went.

She peered into the cauldron that was bubbling away on the counter, then checked her watch before waving her wand over the steaming liquid to stir it. Her face was a mask of concentration as she silently intoned the numbers, counting the seconds. She stopped and looked down anxiously at the cauldron, holding her breath as she waited. For what seemed like an eternity there was silence in the room and then a loud sigh of relief escaped her lips as the liquid within the cauldron changed from the deep forest green it had been to a beautiful, jewel-bright turquoise. She checked her watch again and noted the time, and then turned and smiled at Draco.

'It worked. It actually worked this time,' she announced, sounding gleeful, relieved and a touch surprised all at the same time. She walked back towards him, looking at her watch. 'Now all we have to do is wait twenty minutes and then add the dragon scales.'

She put her wand down on the workbench and picked up her quill, dipping it into the inkpot. She pulled the notebook towards her and bent her head, concentrating as she rapidly added more notes to the almost full book. Stopping for a moment, she looked up at the still scowling boy, who hadn't moved from his place.

'Are you going to sort through the scales, then? We need a dozen Romanian Longhorn — medium size and in perfect condition.' She stopped, noticing Draco's scowl. Frowning now herself, she asked, 'What's the matter?'

Draco shrugged and replied bullishly, 'Nothing. Why would anything be wrong?'

Hermione dropped the quill and straightened up, looking at him worriedly. 'Tell me, what's the matter, Draco? There's obviously something wrong otherwise you wouldn't be all moody.'

Draco scowled again and moved to wrap his arms around Hermione, pulling her into a tight hug. 'All you think about is the bloody project,' he complained.

'That's what we're here to do, isn't it? What do you think we should we be doing instead?' Hermione asked. 'We're already really behind on it because of the potion going wrong last time. It's vital that we get it brewed properly and then we can move onto the last stage . . . which we already know is going to be a complete nightmare, time-wise.'

'You promised me we would be together,' Draco reminded her. 'Yet since that day at Hogsmeade all we've done is work on the bloody project. There's never any time for anything else.'

Hermione looked at him in surprise. 'We're always together, Draco. I spend ninety-five percent of my waking life in your company these days. I'm with you from breakfast time until curfew.'

'Doing school stuff,' Draco pointed out. 'We never spend any time together that's not in a classroom of some description. We haven't even been to the forest for weeks.'

'No, because the last time we went there we picked enough stuff to last for a while,' Hermione reminded him gently. 'Neither of us likes going in there so we're hardly going to go for a nice stroll for the sake of it, are we?'

Draco thought back to pleasant afternoons spent kissing in the forest. 'I thought it was all right during the day, and we've both enjoyed it immensely the last few times we've been in there.' He sighed. 'I was just expecting there to be a bit more to our relationship by now than there has been.'

'We have to work on the project,' Hermione told him soothingly. She wrapped her arms around him in return. 'Unfortunately, that takes up most of our time at the moment. But we're still together. Would we be able to spend so much time in each other's company if we didn't have the project to work on?'

Draco shrugged. 'It would be more interesting, though. I'm fed up with just doing boring school stuff with you.'

'Not just school stuff,' Hermione retorted. 'I spend almost all day with you, and at least seventy percent of that time seems to be spent kissing. That's not school stuff.'

'Or very exciting,' Draco grumbled. 'I want more than that, you know I do. I expected that by now we would—'

Hermione stopped him from speaking with a gentle kiss.

'I know what you want, Draco, but I'm not ready, I'm sorry,' she said quietly once the kiss finished.

'But you promised me, Hermione,' Draco repeated a touch bitterly. 'I didn't fulfil my task for the Dark Lord because you promised and I took you at your word. Perhaps I should have taken you to him after all. Things would have been different then.'

Hermione looked confused. 'How would things be different, Draco? They'd be worse for everyone in the world, but I don't see what difference it would have made to us.'

'We'd have had sex by now,' he told her bluntly.

Hermione stared at him unhappily. 'Would we?' she asked quietly. 'Being Voldemort's prisoner wouldn't have made me any more ready to have sex than I am at the moment, so the only way we'd have done that would be if you'd forced me into it. Is that what you want?'

Draco didn't reply but he looked unhappy at her comment.

'If that's what you want, then what's stopping you?' Hermione asked him honestly. 'You don't need Voldemort's approval to rape me.'

'Of course I don't want to rape you,' Draco spat, sounding disgusted. 'I just thought that when you said we'd have a relationship you were agreeing to something a bit more intimate, because you knew that was what I wanted. But we've spent weeks doing nothing but kissing, and every time I even try to touch you, you get all funny about it. It just occurred to me that if you spent time with the Dark Lord the experience might make you see things differently and you might be more inclined to have sex with me . . . might even welcome my feelings for you.'

Hermione sighed. 'I'm sorry you thought I was agreeing to something more than we've got at the moment, Draco. I honestly didn't mean to deceive you. I thought I'd made it quite clear all along that I wasn't ready for anything more intimate at the moment, although that doesn't mean I won't be in the future. I really do like you but I'm just not comfortable about taking it further at the moment, especially when we've got so much work left to do on the project and revision for exams still required. I know you're fed up with the work and so am I, to some extent, as it's taking up so much of our time, but we have to do it and I want to pass — and I'm sure you do as well.' She released him for a moment and glanced at her watch. 'Look, I don't want to annoy you any more than I already have done, but we really need to sort out the dragon scales otherwise this potion will be ruined, too, and I honestly don't think I can cope with having to try to brew it a third time. We've still got enough to do as it is without adding the stress of that to everything else.

Draco released Hermione as she spoke. With a sigh, but without saying a word, he moved away from her and went over to where their ingredients were stored. He picked up a couple of jars and examined their contents before finally selecting one whose lid he opened.

'How many scales, did you say?' he asked coldly, the tone of his voice making it clear he was unhappy with her.

Hermione paused for a second, a cold knot forming in her stomach at Draco's behaviour towards her. Trying to keep her voice even so he wouldn't know anything was wrong, she answered, 'Twelve. Romanian Longhorns — medium ones, please.'

She picked up the quill again and dipped it in the ink and returned to completing the notes she had started earlier while she thought about what Draco had just said. If she was honest, Hermione knew her response to him had been a little disingenuous. She was well aware of what Draco had expected from a relationship between them, and even though she had not felt ready to take that step with the boy who had been her enemy for so many years she had agreed purely so that he would return her to Hogwarts and not follow through on his promise to deliver her to Voldemort. She had felt a little guilty about it at the time but hoped that the increased amount of kissing would be enough to sustain him, at least until the project was completed. Kissing she could cope with. But it was clear now that he wasn't willing to accept that, and if his bad attitude continued it would be a disaster for the project.

'Once the dragon scales have been added we can put the potion into stasis until tomorrow afternoon if you want,' Hermione said placatingly once she finished writing. She looked at Draco, who ignored her as he examined dragon scales. Swallowing nervously, she dropped her quill and walked over to join him. 'I can't promise all the intimacy you want, Draco, but we could go somewhere to be alone together without having to do the project or any other school work,' she suggested, her hand reaching out to stroke his arm.

Draco stopped what he was doing for a moment and stared at Hermione as if he was studying her. She took a deep breath and stared back, determined not to break his gaze; wanting him to see she was being serious and was trying to make amends.

'That would be good,' Draco acknowledged. He looked back at the scales. 'What do you think of these? Are they perfect enough?'

Hermione looked at the scales he had chosen. They were all identical in size and shape and seemed to be intact.

'They're great. You did a really good job of finding matching scales, thank you,' Hermione said with a smile, impressed as she had been many times since they had become partners at Draco's attention to detail, which matched her own. She looked at her watch again as Draco checked his. 'Five minutes until they need to be added. Perhaps we should pack up while we wait, as we're not going to keep working tonight.'

She moved away from Draco and began sorting the jars of ingredients into alphabetical order, placing them in a cupboard as he continued to work with the dragon scales.

'Do you want to add the scales now?' Hermione asked when it was time.

Draco shrugged and retorted a little stiffly, 'Are you going to throw a hissy fit if I do and the potion goes wrong?'

'It's not going to go wrong,' Hermione assured him confidently, certain that this time the brewing would go smoothly. She picked up a piece of parchment next to the notebook and flicked her eyes over it until she reached the correct part of the instructions. 'You need to turn the heat up to full and wait for it to boil, add all the scales in one go, then stir the potion three times clockwise and seven counter-clockwise. Allow it to boil for two minutes by which time it should have turned a deep forest green again. Then the heat can go off and it can go into stasis.'

Draco followed her instructions, watching the cauldron carefully as he added the scales. He was praying to every god he could think of that nothing would go wrong with the potion. Hermione was right when she said they were running out of time to complete the project and they definitely didn't need the delay of having to brew this tricky potion again, although they were becoming adept at it now. More importantly, he didn't want anything to stop Hermione and him decamping elsewhere for a little fun. He knew it was highly unlikely that anything too interesting would happen, although maybe after their talk it was just vaguely possible that Hermione felt guilty enough to put out a little, but anything was better than nothing and he didn't want a ruined potion to stop it from happening. He felt his body relax with relief as the potion darkened to the colour Hermione had described. He waved his wand to turn off the heat and cast the stasis charm, then turned to face Hermione with a smile.

'It's done and it looks perfect.'

Hermione smiled back at him. She was putting her writing equipment into her bag. 'Brilliant! I'll come down here tomorrow after Ancient Runes, as I've got a free period, and remove the stasis charm. It needs to brew for eight hours so it will be ready to work on after dinner.'

She picked up the bag and looked around the room. It was now empty apart from the cauldron and Draco's bag, still resting on one of the workbenches.

Knowing she couldn't put it off any longer, she continued lightly, 'Shall we go, then?'

Draco nodded as he picked up his bag and sounded gleeful as he said, 'I'm ready. Let's go and have some fun.'


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: _Happy Valentine's Day everyone. There's a bit of romance in the air between Hermione and Draco, and maybe even a few mild lemons. I hope you enjoy. Dx_

* * *

><p>Hermione was feeling quite nervous about what Draco would expect of her, even though she was fairly certain he wouldn't push her into doing anything too sexual if she really wasn't happy about doing it. Also, she wasn't quite sure where they were going to go. She had expected to be working all evening and it wasn't as if they could just hang around somewhere in public, not when their relationship had to remain a secret from everyone in the school. For a moment she wished she had got to know Fred and George a bit better while they were at Hogwarts, as they were the undisputed masters of the hidden places in the castle, but it was too late now. She just had to hope that Draco had a bright idea.<p>

'I don't know where we're going to go,' Hermione said to him as she watched Draco use his wand to douse the lights and close and lock the door of the laboratory. 'The only place we've ever been together is the Forbidden Forest, and I have to admit I don't really want to go there at this time of night, if it's all the same to you.'

Draco, who was feeling much happier at Hermione's efforts to placate him, grinned wickedly as he threw his bag over his shoulder. 'Damn, and I thought you wanted to go into the forest. I thought we could go troll hunting . . . or maybe look for werewolves.'

Hermione gave a small shudder and looked faintly disgusted. 'No, thank you. Professor Lupin is the only werewolf I've got any time for, and I definitely don't want to see any more trolls. That's the second time I was almost killed by one.' She gave a small grin and added ruefully, 'I really don't think they like me very much.'

Draco looked at her in surprise. 'The second time? When was the first time?'

'In first year,' Hermione told him. 'Remember that troll that Professor Quirrell let into the castle on Halloween?'

Draco nodded but looked a little confused. He indicated a route down the corridor, and nodding, Hermione began to walk along beside him.

'Actually, that's how Harry, Ron and I became friends,' Hermione said. 'I'd had a really crappy day in classes. Ron had been really mean to me, saying horrid things, and Harry wasn't much better. They had been going on about what a know-it-all I was and how everyone hated me, and it really upset me. I was so cut up about it that I didn't want to see anyone and couldn't face going in to dinner, so I went and hid in the girls' bathroom on the first floor, where I had a good cry. The next thing I knew there was a bloody great troll in there with me and there was no way to get out. I was terrified and convinced I was going to die. I screamed, but all that did was annoy it. Then I tried to Stupefy it but that didn't work, either. I thought it was because I did the spell wrong — after all, we had only been learning magic for a few weeks — but I found out afterwards that that spell doesn't work on trolls. Harry and Ron came to look for me, realising that as I'd missed dinner I didn't know about the troll being in the castle, and they heard me screaming and came to help. Somehow, between the three of us we managed to knock it out, although we got a good telling-off from Professor McGonagall for not going back to our common room as we had been told to do. After that the three of us became friends. That was probably why I was so scared when that troll came after us in the forest . . . a flashback to that day in the bathroom.'

'That might have had something to do with it, although it could also have been the fact that you were unable to get away and just about to be eaten,' Draco pointed out.

'That certainly didn't help,' Hermione admitted. She smiled at him and stroked his arm. 'Thank Merlin you were there to save me, Draco . . . my own knight in shining armour.'

Draco was about to respond; intending to remind her playfully that even knights got payment for their deeds of valour, when they were suddenly confronted by a group of Slytherins who had just emerged from the dungeon common room ahead of them. Hermione instantly let go of Draco's arm.

'All right, Draco? Haven't seen you around for a while. I see you're still knocking around with the Mudblood.' The speaker, Theo Nott, sneered at Hermione, who stared back with distaste. The others in the group began to snigger.

Draco looked imperiously at them. 'Hermione and I are still engaged in completing our project, which is extremely time consuming and is actually far more interesting than mooching about the corridors with you, Theo.'

'But we haven't seen you properly for months,' Pansy Parkinson said in a wheedling tone. 'Your project's taking an awfully long time to complete. Most of us have almost finished ours.'

Draco shrugged. 'That's because old Snape knew you'd never cope with a difficult project, Pansy. How many potions have you had to brew? Hermione and I have completed almost a dozen extremely complex ones so far and we haven't finished yet. Having put the two best potion makers in the school together, he thought he'd really challenge us. If he'd given us the sort of project the rest of you got we'd have been finished weeks before the rest of the class and he would have had to find us something else to do.'

'It's not just spending all that time with her, though — you're calling the Mudblood by her first name now, not even by her surname any more. Perhaps there's more going on than we know. Have you become a blood-traitor?' Theo asked, his eyes glinting maliciously.

'Don't be such a twat,' Draco retorted dismissively. 'I've just spent the best part of six months working with Hermione on a one-to-one basis, so of course I'm going to call her by her first name, just as she now calls me Draco. That doesn't make me a blood-traitor, nor does it mean there's anything else going on. Plus I'd like to remind you that Snape and Dumbledore are keeping a particularly close eye on us because of our previous encounters . . . and because of my outburst on the first day which did nothing but put their backs up. I haven't come this far to fail the project now and I'm not willing to risk expulsion this close to the N.E.W.T.s, so if that means playing nice then that's what I'm going to do.'

There was scepticism on the faces of some of Draco's friends who were obviously a suspicious bunch, although two of Draco's closest cronies, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, looked as gormless as always.

'So what are you doing now? You're obviously not working on the project,' Blaise Zabini pointed out. 'Are you going to come and spend some time with us for a change?'

Draco seemed to think about it for a moment, then shook his head. 'No. Just because we're not brewing potions doesn't mean we're not working. We're actually off to the Library to do some research on the next stage of the project.'

'Since when do _you_ do research?' Pansy asked, sounding surprised. She stared at Hermione. 'I've no idea how you managed to get him to do that. He's never done any research in his life. He always used to bully the younger kids into doing it for him . . . or paid someone else to do it.'

'He doesn't have any choice with this. As you'll know from your own projects, we've had to work together and there's so much work involved in ours neither of us has had the chance to shirk,' Hermione replied. 'If we don't both work on it it'll never get done as we're running out of time, and as Draco said, we haven't come this far not to complete and pass the project.' She looked at Draco and said quietly, 'That said, you haven't seen your friends for ages, so if you want to go and spend some time with them I'm sure I can manage alone for tonight.'

Draco shook his head. 'We've both had to sacrifice having fun with our friends, Hermione. You haven't spent any time with those two idiots you normally hang around with, either.'

'I know, but it's a little different for me,' Hermione explained. 'Harry and Ron normally spend a lot of their time at Quidditch practice so I quite often end up working alone in the Library and they're both still working on their projects, too, so they won't be around anyway.'

'Come on, Draco, it'll be good to catch up,' Blaise said.

'It'll be more fun if you're there,' Pansy added hopefully. She moved closer to him, a saccharine smile on her face.

Draco wondered for a moment whether Hermione was suggesting an evening with his friends purely so she didn't have to deliver following their earlier conversation. He wasn't sure, but he knew who he would rather spend the evening with and it wasn't his Slytherin housemates, even if he and Hermione did only end up kissing again.

He shook his head. 'As you so eloquently reminded me earlier, we're running behind. I've no idea what this lot intend to do but I'm guessing it's nothing of great importance and at some point in the future when we're really up against it I'll just end up wishing I hadn't wasted my evening doing nothing.'

'You'd rather spend the evening with _her_?' Crabbe asked, sounding confused.

'I'd rather spend the evening working on the project,' Draco clarified.

'With her,' Goyle said.

'Why, do you want to come and help?' Draco asked, a sarcastic bent to his voice now. 'To be honest, we could do with it. We've got a really tricky task coming up next.' He looked around at his friends. 'The offer's open to all of you.'

'You want us to work during our free time?' Goyle asked. Draco nodded but didn't say anything. 'But we were going to go and hang out at the Quidditch pitch and take the piss out of the Hufflepuffs. They've got a new Keeper and he's even worse than Weasley.'

Draco shrugged. 'Yeah, that sounds like fun. I think I'll go with the research, thanks.' He turned to Blaise. 'You're welcome to come and help, Blaise. You've got a fine brain when you're in the mood.'

Blaise shook his head. 'I've already got other things planned for this evening and they definitely don't include spending it in the Library with a load of dusty old books.' He grinned and confided, 'I understand the Wentworth twins are going to be at the Quidditch practice so I thought I'd go and entertain them. They might be Hufflepuffs but those honeys are cute.'

Draco grinned back at his friend. 'Well, don't do anything I wouldn't do.'

Blaise gave a filthy laugh. 'Oh, don't worry, buddy, I've got it covered.'

'So you're not coming with us?' Pansy asked unhappily. She looked extremely disappointed.

'Nope. I'm going to the Library,' Draco said more firmly.

Pansy thought about it for a couple of seconds, then moved closer to him and took hold of his arm, stroking it gently.

'I don't mind coming to help you, Draco.' He looked at her in surprise. Before he could respond she added, 'I can help you and it'll be nice just to be with you for a change. It's been so long since we've been able to spend any time together because of this stupid project and I really miss you.'

'Okay. Well, we've got a lot of research to do. If you really want to help, I'm sure Hermione can tell you what needs doing and where you need to start looking,' Draco said, sounding enthusiastic.

'You want me to work with _her_?' Pansy replied, sounding horrified. She looked Hermione up and down with an expression of disdain on her face. 'I thought I could work with you, Draco. I don't want to work with the Mudblood.'

'It doesn't matter who you work with, we won't be mucking around,' Draco told Pansy as he pulled his arm away from her. She looked disappointed once more. 'If you can't work with Hermione then there's no point in you helping out, as she's our note keeper and is the one who knows what we're aiming to achieve.'

He looked around at the rest of the group. 'I'll see you later. Have fun at the Quidditch pitch.' He turned to Hermione. 'Ready?' he asked.

Hermione nodded. 'Of course,' she said mildly.

The two of them walked away from the other Slytherins and headed for the stairs to the Entrance Hall. The group watched them go.

'He's no fun anymore,' Pansy complained. Crabbe and Goyle agreed with her. 'And I can't believe he'd rather be with her than us.'

'It's obvious he's stressed by the project,' Blaise said, standing up for his friend. 'I reckon the one they've been given must be awful. Twelve potions already! Susan and I have only made eight for ours and that's been pretty tough going. No wonder they're working nonstop.'

'I don't see why he bothers,' Theo said darkly. 'It's not going to be long until the Dark Lord takes over and the Mudblood will be gone anyway. I don't think Draco will need to worry about his N.E.W.T.s then — none of us will.'

They wandered slowly up the corridor towards the stairs, quietly discussing how they expected things to change at the school once Voldemort took over.

* * *

><p>'Now what are we going to do?' Hermione asked once they reached the Entrance Hall. 'I suppose we'd better go to the Library in case any of your friends come to find us.'<p>

Draco chuckled and shook his head. 'None of them will come looking for us, Hermione. The only one who might have done was Pansy, and she won't now she thinks I'll make her work with you. We're perfectly safe to go off elsewhere.'

He took hold of her arm and led her down a corridor that went nowhere near the Library.

'So where are we going, then?' Hermione asked.

'How about the Room of Requirement?' Draco suggested. 'That's nice and secret and will be more comfortable than a draughty old classroom.' He grinned wickedly and winked at her.

Hermione felt her stomach drop at Draco's suggestion and for a moment pictured the Room of Requirement decorated in the way she suspected Draco was thinking of. But she had agreed to spend time alone with him doing something other than schoolwork, and there was nowhere else that wasn't a cold and dusty deserted classroom, so his suggestion did make sense.

Trying to sound happier than she felt, Hermione replied brightly, 'All right, let's go and see what the Room of Requirement thinks we need.'

As they continued walking up flights of stairs and down ever more deserted corridors Draco took hold of Hermione's hand, smiling contentedly as he did so. Immediately she panicked in case anyone saw them, but there was no one in the vicinity and it would be easy enough to let go if someone came along. She suddenly realised that in his own small way Draco was trying to make their relationship more public. Even as recently as a month ago he would never have dared to hold her hand inside the school, even in an area as little-used as this, worried that somehow it would get back to his Slytherin friends. As tiny as the gesture was, it spoke volumes to Hermione. She squeezed his hand for a second and smiled back at him, the nerves that were causing her stomach to churn easing a little. She was still worried about what Draco expected from her once they entered the Room of Requirement, but the hand-holding went a long way toward helping her think he would be reasonable about her reservations regarding a more intimate relationship with him.

They had now reached the corridor where the Room of Requirement was located and stopped in front of the bare wall opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy trying to teach ballet to trolls.

'Shall we give it a go, then?' Draco asked.

'It will be interesting to see what it comes up with if we're both thinking about where we'd like to be,' Hermione said.

'Maybe it doesn't work by what we think but what's in our hearts,' Draco suggested, looking at Hermione intently. 'That could give a completely different room.'

'I'd just like to get out of the corridor,' Hermione admitted. She was still worried about someone coming along and seeing them, although admittedly it was unlikely as it wasn't a particularly regularly used area of the school.

Draco released her hand. 'Perhaps just one of us should think about it, otherwise it might get confused.'

'Well, in that case it had better be me, just to be on the safe side. I know what would be in there otherwise,' Hermione retorted.

'Are you a mind reader then, Hermione?' Draco asked, sounding amused.

Hermione chuckled and shook her head. 'I don't need to be a mind reader to know what you're hoping for this evening, Draco. You've already made that more than clear enough.'

'You might be surprised,' he said mildly, and Hermione realised he was already walking backwards and forwards.

As he completed the third turn, a door appeared in the wall in front of them and Draco moved forward to open it, then gave a small bow before ushering Hermione through in front of him.

'After you, my lady,' he said gallantly.

'Why, thank you, kind sir,' Hermione replied, not wanting to end the playfulness between them.

Hesitant about what she was going to find, Hermione stepped through the door and looked around her in astonishment. The room was not decorated as a bedroom, as she had expected. In fact, surprisingly, there was no bed at all. Instead, although clearly still made of stone, the room appeared to be the inside of a beautifully decorated silk tent, the red and white striped walls fluttering from a light breeze. There were large rugs on the floor covering most of what appeared to be grass, and scattered around were various bits of furniture, including a large and very comfortable-looking sofa.

'Do you like it?' Draco asked quietly. He had entered the room behind Hermione, closing the door behind him and he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her back against him as he spoke quietly in her ear.

Hermione nodded. 'It's nothing like I was expecting,' she admitted. 'It reminds me of—'

'One of the tents at a jousting tournament with the Knights of the Round Table,' Draco said, cutting her off. 'You gave me the idea when you told me I was your knight in shining armour; but it's turned out even better than I hoped.'

Draco squeezed Hermione tightly and kissed her cheek, then released her. Taking her hand, he led her towards the sofa, pleased to see the smile on her face. He had got it right and was hopeful that this would aid him in getting at least a little more intimate with her. He had, as Hermione had hinted he would, initially considered getting the room to recreate his bedroom from either Malfoy Manor or here within the school; the opportunity to put in place a now long-held fantasy of getting Hermione into his bed was almost too perfect to ignore. But she had already told him she had no intention of having sex, and to blatantly push her into it would have scared her away even more and might even have seen her trying to end the relationship completely. Instead, he had followed through with her theme on knights, thinking hard for something that would woo her yet not scare her off, hopeful that he would surprise her and that his consideration of her feelings would persuade her to bestow at least some small favour on him. The room had repaid his consideration magnificently. It was astonishing how much it looked like a tent even though it was still a stone room inside the castle. Still holding her hand, he pulled her down onto the sofa, which was every bit as comfortable as it looked.

'You thought there was going to be a bed, didn't you?' he asked amusedly.

Hermione nodded. 'I have to admit it did cross my mind, especially after what you said earlier.'

Draco took both her hands in his, stroking them as he talked. 'I do want to take you to bed, Hermione. I've wanted to for quite some time now, you already know that. But I have no intention of forcing you to do something you don't want to do or don't feel ready for. That's not what our relationship is about. I need you to trust me, to know that whatever I do is because I care about you, not just because I'm trying to get my leg over.'

Hermione leant forward to kiss him and soon they were lying on the sofa wrapped in each other's arms.

'I'll be honest, I did think about making it my bedroom,' Draco said some time later. 'I've had many rather lurid fantasies containing you and my bed. But I think this is better, especially as we're just starting out.'

'Mmmm,' Hermione agreed happily, feeling no need to speak as she snuggled closer to Draco.

She could feel his hands moving over her body, touching areas she would never normally let him anywhere near even though she was fully clothed, but she felt oddly grateful for his consideration when equipping the room, and if she was honest she was quite enjoying the feeling. She still had no intention of having sex with him. That was a long way from happening, if it ever did, but a little petting wasn't too scandalous and would hopefully serve to keep Draco happy enough to work on the project without more disruption.

'I did think about visualising the fairy glade,' Draco said when they came up for air again. 'But then I thought that was a bit pointless when the real thing is just down the hill, even if it isn't available at night.'

His hand slid under Hermione's blouse now, his warm fingers caressing and stroking her equally warm body. He was taking it slowly, enjoying the feel of her soft skin as he stroked her stomach and inched ever closer to her breasts. His other hand was on her thigh, stroking that, too, as he slowly reached out his thumb to feel the skin closer to the area he really wanted to touch. It wasn't much, but it was more than he had ever managed before, and while Hermione was happy to let him continue he wasn't going to stop.

She allowed him to cup her breast and squeeze it through her bra and even, after a little persuasion from Draco, let him pull down the cup to release her now erect nipple. He ran a finger over it and a tingle of excitement shot through him as it stiffened even more. His other hand had got as far as Hermione's knickers, his fingers at first running over the elastic that held them in place, and for a brief moment cupped her mound, one finger flicking up to stroke the material that covered her. But this, it seemed, was a step too far for Hermione and she tried to pull away. Stoically, Draco went back to stroking her thigh, close to but not touching the knickers as his mouth found hers in another kiss.

All in all Hermione thought the evening was going rather well, although she panicked a little when Draco got rather closer to her knickers than she felt entirely comfortable with. But he kept to his promise not to force her into anything she felt uncomfortable about doing and immediately backed off when he realised he had gone too far. Feeling his erection still pressed against her hip made her aware that she hadn't been anywhere near as active with her own hands. She realised he was probably frustrated at her lack of involvement and wondered whether she could bring herself to do something with him that might ease the problem.

'I know you're not very happy with me for not having sex with you,' Hermione said a little later, during a break in the kissing. Although she felt quite comfortable with things as they currently were, she knew they needed to talk about it so it wouldn't eventually come between them as it had threatened to do earlier.

Draco hugged her more tightly. 'I wouldn't say I wasn't very happy, just a little disappointed . . . and somewhat frustrated.'

'To be honest, I've not really thought about sex much,' Hermione admitted. 'I've always thought it would happen at some vague, unspecified time in the future, and I suppose I always thought Ron would be the one.'

'You fancy Weasley?' Draco sounded disheartened.

Hermione shrugged. 'Not really, but he's always driven me a bit mad and you know what they say about opposites attracting.'

'That's why you and I are perfect for each other,' Draco said.

Hermione frowned. 'We're not opposites, Draco. We're actually very similar — I hadn't realised _how_ similar until we started working together.'

'I'm pure-blood and you're Muggle-born,' Draco pointed out. 'You can't get much further apart than that.'

'Actually, the only difference there is the perceptions of you pure-bloods,' Hermione pointed out stiffly. 'I'm not sure that counts.'

'All right, let's forget our differences. We're perfect for each other because we're so alike,' Draco said.

Hermione couldn't help but snigger at this. 'So according to you we're perfect for each other because we're completely different and also because we're exactly the same. So how does that work, then?'

'It means we're just perfect for each other regardless, Hermione. I'm absolutely convinced we're meant to be together and I really think it would be right for us to have sex,' Draco replied. He sounded serious, although he was wearing a grin.

'You would say that,' Hermione retorted. 'But I told you I've never really thought about sex until now. I'm not saying it will never happen, but it might take a while for me to get my head round it, especially with you.'

'What do you mean, especially with me?' Draco asked, sounding a little terse.

'After the way things have been between us for the previous six years,' Hermione explained gently. 'Haven't you found it strange that after hating each other for so long it's suddenly gone the other way? I have to admit I'm finding it a little difficult to deal with, realising that you're nothing like I thought you were . . . and that I like being with you.'

'It just seemed to be a natural progression,' Draco admitted. 'Once I started working properly with you I realised all that stuff about Muggle-borns was rubbish, and the better I got to know you the more I realised I fancied you. As time went on my desire for you increased, and it was just natural to want to take things further. It didn't really occur to me that you might not have had sex before and wouldn't be interested, especially as you obviously liked the kissing as much as I did . . . and you were the one who kissed me first.'

Hermione blushed. 'You know that was an instinctive reaction to say thank you for saving me from the troll.'

Draco smiled. 'Perhaps it was, but it was good. I liked it and I wanted more.'

'Well, I thought you and Pansy were a couple so I didn't even really consider having a relationship with you,' Hermione admitted.

Draco grunted. 'We have a bit of an on-off thing. We have sex sometimes but we're not really a couple.'

'Are you sure Pansy realises that? Certainly everything I've ever heard from her on the subject would indicate she thinks you are,' Hermione said with a frown.

'Well, we're not,' Draco told her adamantly. 'There's only one person I want as my girlfriend and that's you.' Hermione didn't say anything for a moment. 'What's the matter?' he asked, suddenly wondering if he had said something wrong.

'Nothing,' Hermione said. 'I just thought that if you and she were still—'

'I told you there's nothing going on between us, Hermione. I wouldn't be trying to make love to you if she was my girlfriend. Is that what it is, you don't trust me?' Draco asked, his voice rising in annoyance.

Hermione sighed and shook her head. 'I don't really know what I was thinking, to be honest,' she admitted. 'I feel as if I'm being really mean not having sex with you, but I can't help it. As I said, it's going to take me a while, and I thought rather than you being frustrated you could . . . oh, I don't know . . . I don't know what I was thinking.'

Draco looked at her in surprise. 'Are you telling me to have sex with Pansy?'

'I just thought if you're that frustrated you might want to go elsewhere and it wouldn't really be right of me to stop you when I'm not giving you what you need,' Hermione said honestly.

'I'm frustrated because I want to make love to _you_, not Pansy,' Draco told her. 'Anyway, if I went off with her how would you ever trust me enough for our relationship to develop?'

Hermione thought about what Draco had just said. He was right that part of the reason she was having difficulty getting intimate with him was because of a lack of trust. There was a part of her that couldn't forget how he had treated her in the past and was suspicious of his current interest in her, whatever he said about how much he fancied her. Whilst there was no doubt he did, at the moment at least, Hermione couldn't help but worry that what they shared now wouldn't continue after the project was over, and that anything they did together would be used against her in the future. As arousing as she found Draco, she didn't want to find herself the object of derision for him and his friends; and whilst it was true he could be seen as a blood-traitor, especially in light of his desire for her, she couldn't forget that he was still a Death Eater, too.

Hermione had never given much thought to sex, at least not until recently, and when she had thought about it previously she had sort of assumed a future with Ron as she had fancied him for years. But since the project started she had found herself wondering more and more about what it would be like to share that intimacy with Draco instead. On the one hand his desire for her was exciting in a way she had never felt before, making her breathless and a little light-headed, and giggly too — which was strange because she had never been a giggly sort of person. And, of course, he had saved her life, which added another layer to the already complex feelings she had about the boy. But on the other hand there was still the problem of their relationship having to stay a secret, and as was always the case, it made her wonder about what sort of future they could share if they couldn't even hold hands in public. Did she really want to entrench herself even more deeply in a relationship she couldn't tell anyone about? Okay, it might not be ideal, that was for sure, but she couldn't help but admit that her stomach had done a small flip of joy when Draco confirmed that he wasn't Pansy's boyfriend and had no interest in the dark-haired, pug-faced girl.

'Are you trying to get rid of me?' Draco asked when Hermione didn't immediately answer his question. 'Trying to foist me off on Pansy?'

Hermione looked confused for a moment; then, realising what Draco was saying, she shook her head and leant forward to kiss him.

'I'd prefer you not have anything going with Pansy, but I thought I couldn't complain if you did,' she admitted.

Draco grinned. 'I knew you fancied me really.'

Hermione nodded and said jokingly, 'It's true, I do . . . but only 'cos you're blond. If you had dark hair I probably wouldn't even talk to you.'

'I've always thought being a blond had benefits and this proves it,' Draco replied smugly. 'So have you told Rachel about you and me?'

'There hasn't been much to tell, has there?' Hermione said honestly. 'She knows we've been working on the project together and that we're getting on better than we did before, but I haven't really talked to her about it outside of that, although knowing Rachel she probably suspects.'

'I thought she might have tried to warn you off me after she found out I lied to her,' Draco said quietly.

'No. I told you before, she understands why you did that, and she thinks it's quite sweet. I'm sure she would be over the moon to discover her matchmaking finally paid off, but I'm still having trouble with us having to keep everything a secret.' Before Draco could say anything Hermione quickly added, 'I do understand why we have to do it, Draco . . . but it's just so difficult . . . especially when I wish we didn't have to.' She blushed at what she was admitting to.

Draco, happier than ever at Hermione's comment, pulled her close for another kiss. Hermione could once again feel his hardness pressed against her which caused another warm flash of guilt.

Trying to keep her voice as normal as possible, she said, 'I suppose I could. . . .' She broke off, embarrassed, then tried again, her hand brushing gently against the bulge in Draco's trousers as she spoke. 'If you're that frustrated. . . .'

Before she could finish her sentence Draco released her and pulled away, looking shaken. Hermione was confused. He wasn't reacting at all in the way she had expected him to.

'What are you doing?' he asked, sounding almost accusing.

'I thought perhaps I could help out your frustration,' Hermione said. She was blushing furiously now, Draco's odd reaction making her feel strangely ashamed. More quietly she added, 'I'm sorry, I thought that was what you wanted.'

Draco gave a long, loud sigh, then wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head as he squeezed her tightly.

'That'll make it even worse,' he admitted. 'I want you so much, Hermione. But I want us both to have enjoyment from this. I'll admit it would relieve the frustration in the short term, but eventually it would just make it worse because I'd want to touch you even more than I already do. I think I'd rather wait until we're both ready.' He frowned. 'Does that make sense?'

Hermione nodded, but she didn't say anything and she didn't look at him. She was embarrassed about her actions and about Draco's reaction.

Draco stroked her cheek and slid his thumb under her chin to push her head up to look at him.

'You've no idea how happy what you just offered to do has made me,' he told her quietly, trying to ease her embarrassment. 'Now I know for sure that you like me, too, so it can only be a matter of time before things get properly intimate.' He kissed her again, tenderly, then gave her another squeeze. 'I suppose we should be getting back to our common rooms soon, it's almost curfew,' he said, sounding disappointed as he looked at his watch. 'I can't believe how quickly the evening has gone again.' He smiled at Hermione. 'Thank you for taking the evening off from the project . . . and for spending it with me.'

Hermione smiled back, her embarrassment receding somewhat. 'It's been nice,' she admitted. 'And I still love what you did with the room.'

'It might have to be a bed next time, though,' Draco said wickedly as they picked up their bags and made their way to the door.

Hermione stared at him archly. 'Who said I was coming back here with you again?'

'You will eventually, Hermione. You can't resist me really,' Draco told her with a smirk on his face.

'You think so much of yourself, Draco Malfoy,' Hermione retorted, shaking her head as she said it.

Draco shrugged but laughed as he said, 'That's 'cos I'm the best thing you'll ever have.'

Hermione shook her head again as if in disgust and opened the door.

'Admit it, Hermione. You know I'm right.'

'I'm admitting nothing,' Hermione replied, but she couldn't help grinning and Draco took her hand as they walked down the corridor.


	7. Chapter 7

Hermione looked over at her two friends who were busy playing wizard's chess, a game she had always found a little too brutal and barbaric for her tastes. Ron was winning, as he almost always did, and Hermione couldn't help but smile. Poor Ron never seemed to have the confidence Harry displayed, except when he was playing chess. Then all his insecurities melted away and he was the master of the game. She wished he could be a little more like that in his day-to-day life but she was aware of the yoke that having all those brothers and a famous friend placed upon him and knew he found it hard to shake off the shackles that bound it. She turned back to the book she had been attempting to read but after a moment she put the bookmark in place and closed it with a small sigh, knowing she wasn't able to concentrate however much she needed to.

The reason she couldn't concentrate was, as always, because of Draco. Tonight was the first night since they had become a proper couple that she had managed to spend any time away from him, and whilst in some ways it was something of a relief — even if it was just giving her lips a chance to rest — it was also strange not to be with him. The reason for the exile was a practical one. Exams were due to start in just over three weeks and Hermione needed to do some serious revision. It wasn't that she hadn't revised previously — she had, and Draco had revised with her, the two of them slotting it in between brewing the latest and second to last of the potions in their project. But revision with Draco always ended up turning into a snogging session, and as good as it was, and as accomplished as she had become at it, she would never gain a N.E.W.T. for that.

Finally, realising she was actually quite close to having a major meltdown as she hadn't revised anywhere near as much as she would normally do and panic was beginning to set in, she gave Draco an ultimatum — either she got some time alone to revise or she would end their relationship. She didn't really mean it as, now she had got used to the secret side of it, being Draco's girlfriend was actually rather nice; but just like Harry and Ron, the Slytherin boy appeared to have no concept of just how important revision was so she'd had no choice but to take drastic action. The problem was that in allowing her time alone to revise, Hermione knew Draco expected to get more in return from their relationship than she had so far allowed him.

Ever since their evening in the Room of Requirement Draco had been pushing to become ever more intimate, and Hermione was running out of ways to say no without upsetting him. She had enjoyed the evening immensely and had to admit that thoughts of sex were rather more on her mind these days than was probably normal for a girl of her age. She had even spent several nights lying alone in her bed fantasising about them doing it, but in reality she couldn't quite take that final step with Draco. She knew that partly it was because her brain was reminding her that she didn't have time for such nonsense with the exams only a few short weeks away and two potions still left to brew to complete the project; both of these things needed concentration, not her drifting off thinking about Draco's kisses or wondering, as she had a few times now, what his penis looked like and how it would feel to touch it. However much she may now want things to get steamy between them, it was going to have to wait until after the exams were over.

But there was another tiny piece of doubt that she couldn't quite shift no matter how many times Draco told her how much he liked her. She worried that once he got her into bed Draco would dump her and then tell everyone in the school what he had done, crowing about her gullibility and eagerness to fall for his stories when everyone knew she was just a stupid little Mudblood that he would never have any time or real affection for. It was this more than anything that stopped her from taking that final step.

If only there were some way she could get Draco to prove that he really had changed in his views, but that was impossible without giving away their secret to everyone. The problem was that however much she loved Draco, and Hermione was beginning to believe that despite everything they had been through in the past she really was in love with him, she couldn't get any more intimate with him than they already were. Regardless of everything she had tried to warn Draco about he was still a Death Eater, unwilling or unable to give up his allegiance to his Dark Lord. Hermione felt that to have sex with him whilst Draco continued to remain faithful to the evil wizard would be like collaborating with the enemy. His continued support gave validation to Voldemort and his followers' beliefs and would make her pathetic and the worst kind of traitor for aiding in that validation. She would be a blood-traitor, too, even more so than Draco would be considered by his friends and family if their secret relationship became known.

She sighed again and looked at the book. Why was she considering this now when she could be making better use of her time studying? The bottom line was the same as it had always been: Draco was his father's son and a Death Eater and nothing was going to change that, however well they now got on. He was too set in his ways, and his hatred of Harry and Ron made any other way seem unappealing to him. But she wasn't willing to have sex with a Death Eater, even knowing that he was nothing like she had imagined for so long, so their relationship could go no further. It would eventually deteriorate and Draco would go back to detesting her, more than before probably, and would treat her with the disdain and hatred that had always been the watchwords of their interactions in the past.

Hermione fervently wished it didn't have to be that way but knew it was destined to happen. She would never abandon Harry and Draco would never go against his father, so she and Draco would always be on opposite sides of the divide; and if it came to a fight they would have no choice but to follow their true natures. She could hope that Draco wouldn't fight against her but nothing was certain. That was the depressing thing. She couldn't even guarantee that her boyfriend wouldn't attack and kill her, given the order to do so by Voldemort.

Feeling thoroughly disheartened and knowing she would achieve nothing by staying in the common room, Hermione stood up and went over to Harry and Ron.

'I'm going to bed,' she told them. 'I seem to have reached a mental block with my revision and nothing's going in. Hopefully a good night's sleep will help and I'll have another go tomorrow. I'll see you in the morning.'

Harry and Ron watched her go.

'Do you think Hermione's okay?' Harry asked worriedly.

Ron shrugged. 'She's probably overdoing it. You know what Hermione's like. She needs to take some time to relax, not keep revising all the time. What with that and the bloody Potions project we haven't seen her for months.'

'I wonder if that's causing her problems, too,' Harry mused.

'You know what Malfoy's like. Do you really think he's curbed his persecution just because they're working together? I don't think that's likely, whatever the greasy git said about punishing him for calling her a Mudblood,' Ron said.

'I don't think he has, though, has he?' Harry replied. 'Called her a Mudblood, I mean. I've heard them talking about the project a few times and he always calls her Hermione, he doesn't even use her surname any more. And Snape and Dumbledore are keeping an eye on him because of this integration thing — and knowing what a tosser he can be — so I don't think he'd get away with it.'

'Perhaps he's holding up the project instead,' Ron said, determined to find Draco at fault. 'Everyone else has finished except for them.'

'Same thing, though,' Harry pointed out. 'They see Snape to discuss their project just the same as everyone else did. He would know if Malfoy was deliberately sabotaging their work and do something about it. He may not think much of Hermione or like punishing Slytherins but he couldn't let that go, not when it's so important for their N.E.W.T.s, and I don't believe Malfoy would be that stupid. He wants to pass his exam the same as everyone else does.'

'I suppose you're right,' Ron said dully. 'Perhaps it is just Hermione setting herself too high expectations as usual.'

'She'll be okay after the exams, she always is,' Harry predicted confidently, then he swore loudly as Ron checkmated him. 

* * *

><p>Draco was feeling a little on edge. Things had been going relatively well between him and Hermione since their night in the Room of Requirement, but however much he tried to gently move things on they were still, as far as he could see, no nearer to going to bed. He had tried hard to put himself in Hermione's shoes and could sort of understand why she was nervous and unsure about taking that extra step with him but it seemed to him that there was something else, something he had been unable to fathom, that was stopping her. The problem was that he didn't know how to broach the subject with her without Hermione getting annoyed with him, but the frustration he had been feeling for so long now was getting worse and he wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to go on as they were.<p>

Although he had told Hermione he had no interest in Pansy, that wasn't quite true. When he had thought it might only be a few weeks before he and beautiful Hermione would finally make love it was easy to ignore the Slytherin girl, not wanting to give his clearly anxious girlfriend any reason to doubt his desire for her. But as more time went on and that so-desired intimacy had still not happened, Draco found his mind turning towards Pansy and what she could do for him. The truth was that while he still had no interest in her as a girlfriend she was at least willing to let him do those things that Hermione wouldn't, and several times a little voice in his brain tried to convince him that it was what the beautiful Gryffindor wanted him to do. Hadn't Hermione as good as told him to have sex with Pansy, the voice wheedled, and Draco had to work extremely hard to shut it up. Now it was almost impossible to ignore it, and with the latest enforced separation between them — even if it was only for exam revision purposes — he was beginning to crumble.

For Draco, being away from Hermione wasn't a nice break — it was a nightmare. He had spent the evening with his friends and Pansy, and the dark-haired girl had attached herself to him like a limpet, rubbing herself provocatively over him, using her usual techniques to get him aroused. And it was working ridiculously well. Surely it wouldn't matter if he spent just this one night with Pansy, would it? He didn't even need to tell Hermione what had happened, he could just tell her about yet another evening of revision with his friends. Hermione was so trusting that she would be bound to believe him.

Draco gave a small moan and put his head back, closing his eyes as Pansy's hand grabbed his crotch and squeezed gently as she had done so many times in the past. He could feel his heart beating faster as she continued to touch him, his erection growing as his desire flared. Pansy was such a slut — but she definitely knew how to give him pleasure. As he relaxed and allowed her to do as she wished with him he remembered the feeling of Hermione's hand doing the same thing, although with far less conviction, and his erection stiffened even more. If she offered to touch him now he wouldn't turn it down. He wanted anything he could get from Hermione, and if that was all she was prepared to do he would accept and make the most of it.

He sighed a little more loudly and opened his eyes for a moment to see Pansy smiling at him, her vapid, simpering face negating the wonderful feelings her hands were causing. He closed his eyes and pushed Pansy from his mind, Hermione taking her place once again, although he knew he should be grateful to Pansy for what she was doing. She had moved to sit on his knees now, her body shielding what she was doing from the rest of the common room although Draco knew Blaise and Theo were well aware of what was happening. He felt her small, soft hands playing with his trousers and then he was free. A large gasp of pleasure escaped his lips before he could stop it. But before he even had time to enjoy this new escalation an image of Hermione exploded into his mind, her face looking pale, unhappy and betrayed. The sort of disappointment he could quite easily imagine her experiencing overwhelmed him and caused him to push Pansy away roughly; not caring about her look of bewilderment and hurt.

Draco hurriedly redressed himself and stood up, embarrassedly excused himself from his friends and left the common room. He decided to go for a walk to calm himself down before bed, unable to quite believe what he was doing. _Hermione would never have known_, the little voice in his brain chided him angrily as he walked down the dark, cold corridor. But if she had found out she would be devastated and so hurt, he tried to explain to the voice reasonably. What if she wouldn't let him anywhere near her any longer? What if she wouldn't even let him kiss her? Whatever Pansy offered wasn't worth that.

For the next twenty minutes he walked, not taking any notice of where he was going but wanting only to clear his head and calm down. Finally, once he was certain he could return to the common room without anything embarrassing happening, he made his way back. He stopped only long enough to give a decent apology to Pansy, blaming overwork and exam stress for his mood before heading off to his dormitory and to bed. He was glad to find the room unoccupied so he could do what he needed to do, then changed into his pyjamas and slid under the covers to think about Hermione once more.

This whole relationship was becoming unbearable and something had to change and soon. He was going to have to talk to Hermione, to find out what that extra thing was that was making her hold back, and see what he could do to make the situation one in which she would feel comfortable making love. But as hard as it was to accept, it would probably have to wait until after the exams. Hermione had made it very clear she wasn't willing to do anything but work on the project and revise between now and then, and Draco suspected that once Hermione made up her mind about something she was unlikely to change it. 

* * *

><p>'I shall be so glad when these bloody exams are out of the way,' Draco said. He pulled Hermione to him, his arms cradling her gently as his lips sought hers.<p>

They had just finished bottling the penultimate potion and were ready to take stock of where they were before they moved on to the final stage of the project. Things were hectic and they were up against an exceedingly tight deadline, Draco was aware, but surely there was time for a little break for some intimacy, even if only to celebrate everything they had achieved so far.

'I just want to get this project finished now,' Hermione stated honestly when they finished kissing. 'I've got so much revision to do, but all I can think about is that last potion we've still got to brew. It's beginning to drive me insane with the amount of work I've got piling up and I'm just not getting a chance to get it done.'

'But I won't get to see you at all then,' Draco said sounding sullen. 'At least we get to spend some time together because of the project. What about once it's over?'

Hermione looked uneasy. 'These exams are the most important things we'll ever do, Draco. It would be madness not to prepare for them as well as we can. Anyway, it'll give you a chance to build your reputation back up with your friends.'

'I don't care about them,' Draco retorted snappishly. 'I want to spend more time with you, Hermione, not less. 'I mean, by now we should be—'

He broke off as he saw the unhappy look cross Hermione's face as she realised what he was going to say and she tried unsuccessfully to move out of his grasp.

Draco gave a loud growl of annoyance. He was fed up with tiptoeing around the subject of their sex life, or more accurately the lack of it. He was sure he wasn't being unreasonable in wanting more after all this time. It been had been several months since he was supposed to have taken her to the Dark Lord, yet he still hadn't got Hermione anywhere near a bed.

'I almost had sex with Pansy last night,' he admitted gruffly as he pulled Hermione closer, his forehead resting gently against hers as he spoke.

'What stopped you?' Hermione's voice was stilted and cool. She tried to move away from him.

Draco pulled back from her with another sigh, looking at her intently as he held her hands at arm's length, trying to give Hermione a little space but not wanting to give her the chance to escape.

'You, of course,' he said, as if it was obvious and he couldn't believe he was having to say it. 'I told you, it's you I want . . . but you're making it so hard, Hermione. I'm not a saint and you can't expect me to wait forever. It's not fair.'

Hermione bowed her head a little to break the gaze, feeling herself flushing at the faint criticism. Her heart was pounding at Draco's words.

Quietly she told him, 'I'm sorry. I know what you want but I can't—'

'But why not?' Draco demanded, his voice ragged with emotion. He was struggling not to lose his temper aware that it wouldn't improve the situation; but it was incredibly difficult, especially as he was feeling so hard done by. 'We've been together for months . . . you promised me we would get more intimate, that it was only a matter of time, and surely you _must _know how I feel about you by now — I can't keep my hands off you. I understand that you have never done anything like that before so you're a little anxious, and it's all a bit strange after the way things were between us before, but I'm not going to hurt you, Hermione.' He broke off for a moment, then asked more quietly and sounding disappointed, 'Is it that you still don't trust me?'

Hermione bit her bottom lip as she looked at Draco, unable to speak for a moment, the urge to burst into tears suddenly overwhelming her.

'I know there's something,' Draco said gently, trying to draw her into talking to him. 'Please, Hermione, tell me what it is. I need to know what to do.'

Hermione stared at him miserably. 'You're a Death Eater,' she whispered.

'But you knew that when you first agreed to the relationship. I never kept it a secret from you,' Draco said, anger surging through him once more. He dropped her hands, clenching his fists as he tried desperately to calm himself down before he did something stupid.

'I know, and I thought that eventually it wouldn't matter . . . but it does. I can't get over that, Draco, I'm sorry. All I can think about is that regardless of what happens between us, in this war that's coming you and I will be on different sides. We're going to end up fighting each other.' Hermione breathed deeply, trying to stop the tears that were so close to falling.

Draco's face flushed angrily as he spat, 'You lied to me, didn't you? You never meant for us to have a relationship . . . never meant for us to share any sort of intimacy. I see that now. You lied and made me think there was something there when all you really wanted was to stop me from taking you to the Dark Lord. You stopped me from doing my duty to him. I was stupid and gullible and I thought you were better than that, Hermione, but I now can see I was wrong.' He grabbed his bag from the table and began to stride towards the door.

Hermione moved to cut him off, shaking her head. She wanted Draco to know he was wrong in what he thought, that she hadn't explained her feelings to him properly. If only he would give her a chance, would let her explain, then perhaps he would understand and stop being angry with her. Instead he was going to leave, and the anger and hatred he felt towards her at the moment would fester and grow and she would lose him forever.

'Please, Draco,' she begged, clutching at his arm, trying to stop him from moving. 'Please . . . my love . . . let me explain. You've got it wrong, I promise you have—'

But before she could say anything else Draco shrugged away from her and stormed towards the door. Hermione stood watching him, looking defeated, the tears she had tried so hard to stop now coursing down her cheeks.

'Please, Draco, don't leave . . . not like this,' she begged.

Draco turned to look at her, his stare as cold and imperious as it ever used to be.

'Don't talk to me, you filthy little Mudblood,' he hissed, his cold grey eyes flashing with indignant fury. Hermione gasped and clutched her chest, sounding as if she was in pain at his words. Ignoring her, he continued, 'I don't want to listen to your lies any longer. I'm not as stupid as you think I am.'

Without another word he turned away, opening the door with his wand and walking through it. The door closed with a bang behind him and Hermione stared at it for a few seconds before she crumpled, collapsing on to the workbench in front of her. She stayed that way for a long time, loud, painful sobs of grief erupting until eventually her legs gave way and she slowly slid down to sit on the floor, shaking and devastated, unable to believe Draco's final words to her.

* * *

><p>Draco opened his eyes and gave a long, mournful sigh. He rolled over and closed his eyes again, wishing he could go back to sleep although he knew he had to get up. He could hear someone in the bathroom so it wouldn't be long before everyone started to wake and would be ragging on him to join them for breakfast. His stomach roiled at the thought of food, and as he thought back to the night before he winced, wishing he could disappear into the bed — or better still, cease to exist completely. He definitely didn't want to get up as it would mean having to face the carnage he had wrought last night in his fury. He sighed loudly again. He was a complete and utter idiot and in the space of a few short minutes had totally ruined his entire life . . . and then he had compounded it by shagging Pansy. He groaned as he turned over again, not wanting to relive that grievous error either. He really had done a fine job of ruining everything. The only way it could possibly have been worse would be if he had sabotaged the project.<p>

At the thought of the project his blood ran cold. How many times had Hermione pleaded with him to wait until the project was over before thinking about getting intimate? She had told him again and again that they had to get the project done first and yet he had kept pushing. They only had one more potion to brew and then the final presentation of their project to Professor Snape and it would all be over, almost a year of hard work successfully concluded and pretty much guaranteed to give them both an Outstanding grade in their Potion N.E.W.T. But now the chance for that exalted score had all but died, thanks to him.

He already knew there was no way either of them would have time to complete the project alone; they had meticulously worked out the amount of time they needed a few days before and had both had to factor in their precious free periods, when Hermione would have preferred to be revising, in order to get it finished in time. As Professor Snape had told them so long ago, there could only be a successful conclusion if they worked together; but now, thanks to him and his bloody stupid temper, there was no way Hermione would want to be within a hundred miles of him, let alone work with him, and he honestly couldn't blame her for that after what he had said to her in anger.

And what perfect timing it had been. He had been so angry with her that he had lashed out automatically, not even taking in what she said until he woke this morning. He couldn't believe he had missed what she said . . . no wonder she was so hurt by him calling her a Mudblood again after such a long time. It was an evil thing to do, but at the time he hadn't cared. He had felt used and betrayed and so frustrated at her refusal to have sex that he wanted to hurt her, had enjoyed her pain . . . and now he felt like a real heel.

Suddenly uncomfortable in the bed, he sat up and gave another huge sigh.

'What's the matter, Draco, having trouble moving?' Blaise asked with a grin as he walked into the bedroom. He was rubbing his hair with a towel. 'I bet Pansy used and abused you, didn't she? Mind you, you deserved it with the way you've been treating her recently. Did she punish you for the other night?' He grinned again. 'She is very good at kissing it all better, though, so I expect you didn't suffer for too long.'

Draco stared at him as if he couldn't understand what Blaise was saying. His brain was still thinking about Hermione and the project and definitely didn't want to focus on Pansy and the things they had done last night.

'I suppose you wanted to let your hair down after finishing the project, did you?' Blaise asked.

He was getting dressed now, not looking at Draco who had made it to the edge of the bed and was floundering like a drowning man.

'Bet you ruined the Mudblood's day, too,' he said sounding smug.

'What makes you say that?' Draco asked stiffly, suddenly wondering what the hell he had said to his friends. His temper had been so overwhelming that he couldn't really remember much about the end of the evening except for his need to have lots of sex.

'The way you were slagging her off to us, and the towering temper you were in, it was clear the two of you must have had a massive argument.' Blaise looked sympathetically at his friend. 'It was probably a bit of a relief after all those months of having to be pleasant to the bitch . . . to be able to finally tell her what you really thought of her.' He grinned then added, 'Actually, I'll be honest, we were all rather glad you exploded.'

'Why?' Draco looked at Blaise curiously.

'Well, you were getting a bit too close to the Mudblood for a while there, mate. Even I was beginning to wonder if you'd become a blood-traitor.'

Draco felt a trickle of cold run down his spine at Blaise's words.

'Me, a blood-traitor?' he said, sounding dismissive. 'You're joking, right?' He snorted as if the idea was completely unbelievable, then added with a frown, 'What made you think that?'

Blaise shrugged as he looked at himself in the mirror, then turned to face Draco.

'Well, I understood that you were playing it nice with old Snape and Dumbledore on your back after your rebellion the first day, and I know it's hard to work with someone so much and not start calling them by their first name — especially the amount of time you two were spending together — but then you got a bit weird and things seemed a bit more serious between you.'

'Serious how?' Draco asked, trying to sound supremely unconcerned although his heart was banging so hard he wasn't sure how Blaise couldn't hear it.

Blaise shrugged again and sat down on his bed, still looking at Draco.

'Theo told me about the Dark Lord telling you to take the Mudblood to him,' Blaise said quietly.

Draco's heart skipped a beat but he forced himself to stay calm. Of course Theo had known. He had been at the meeting, as had several others; they would all have heard the Dark Lord give him the task, so there was nothing to worry about there. His conversation with the Dark Lord about getting Hermione afterwards had been a private one, for his ears alone — that hadn't been shared with the assembled Death Eaters, so Theo and the others would have known nothing about it. They may have been thinking he was a blood-traitor but they didn't know for sure. They couldn't. He had kept it far too well hidden.

'He did. But just because I haven't managed to fulfil the task doesn't mean I'm a blood-traitor,' Draco confirmed, sounding indignant. 'I did try but I wasn't able to get her to leave the school. I was hoping she might take a break for a Hogsmeade visit, and if she had I would have followed her and taken her then, but she told me we didn't have time to waste and she would rather work through. I was completely stymied. You know we can't Apparate from inside the school grounds.'

Blaise nodded as if he understood but then said, 'But that's when you started getting a bit weird. Remember that night we bumped into you on the way to the Quidditch pitch? Were you really going to the Library?'

'Of course we were. Where do you think we were going?' Draco asked defensively.

'I don't know,' Blaise admitted, 'but you were acting pretty suspiciously and I began to wonder whether maybe you'd succumbed and started getting a bit more intimate with her. Granger's quite a good-looking girl and she's intelligent enough to have attracted your interest. It was obvious you were getting on pretty well and you hadn't been with Pansy for ages . . . I know because she moaned about it constantly.'

'If you'd seen the amount of work we had to get through you'd have known why I had no time for Pansy,' Draco groaned. 'I didn't even have time to think about that sort of thing. It feels like my entire life has been that bloody project, not just a few months.'

'But you seemed really possessive of Granger, too,' Blaise said.

Draco stared at him in astonishment. 'Possessive? How was I possessive?'

'Do you know how much you look at her?' Blaise asked.

Draco shrugged, trying to keep it casual. 'I've always looked at her. Her and those two idiots she hangs around with. I like to keep an eye on what they're up to.'

'True,' Blaise said. 'But you look at her differently from the way you look at them. It's like you _need_ to see her and you don't like it when she talks to other people. You have this sort of glare stare whenever she's with anyone else, especially if it's a boy.' He laughed. 'I think you were just spending too much time together and it rubbed off on you. I mean, there's no way you'd have been as vitriolic about her as you were last night if there _was_ anything going on between you. Now, are you going to get up or what? I'm starving and need to go to breakfast.'

Draco disappeared into the bathroom while Blaise finished dressing. He still couldn't remember exactly what he'd said to his friends, the red mist of fury that had enveloped him had effectively wiped it from his brain, but it was obviously bad. He just hoped he hadn't been that mean to Hermione to her face otherwise she might well hex him the next time he saw her.

But he didn't want to see her. Now that he had calmed down he felt supremely guilty and he didn't want to face her. But he had no choice. She was bound to be at breakfast, and if she wasn't she would definitely be in Arithmancy, which was her first lesson and one of many they shared that day. What were the chances that she would accept his apology and agree to forget what had happened and work with him to complete the project? He knew she needed to finish it as much as he did, but if she wouldn't forgive him would they be able to work in the sort of conditions that used to exist before they had had been placed on the project together? He had no idea but also had no choice but to find out.

He returned to the bedroom to get dressed. What if she wouldn't work with him? What if she told Professor Snape why they had fallen out? Not about the sex — he couldn't believe Hermione would tell anyone about that — but she might tell the Potions Master that Draco had called her a Mudblood again, knowing it would get him into trouble with his Head of House. He sighed again. He would accept whatever rotten punishment Professor Snape wanted to throw at him if it meant getting to be with Hermione again. But he had to be careful. Blaise was the least rabid of his pure-blood friends and would probably overlook the things that had happened with Hermione previously because of his outburst last night. People like Theo wouldn't be so easy to win over, and if Blaise had those suspicions it was certain that others would, too. But how was he going to make peace with Hermione without his friends getting suspicious again? That was another question for which he had no answer.

He sighed again.

'What's the matter?' Blaise asked.

Draco thought for a second, then decided to be honest with his best friend. Relatively honest, anyway.

'Hermione and I didn't finish the project,' he said.

Blaise looked at him in astonishment. 'What? But I thought you finished and then told her where to go.'

Draco shook his head, looking maudlin. 'No. Things were getting a bit tense between us. The project is dragging on forever and severely cutting into our revision time for the exams. Hermione's a real revision freak and it was seriously stressing her out. We had just got to the end of the second to last potion when the bickering turned into a massive argument and I ended up calling her a Mudblood and storming out.'

'Oh, bloody hell,' Blaise said, sounding shocked. He thought for a moment then continued, 'That gives you both something of a problem.'

Draco gave a nasty snort of derision. 'That's somewhat of an understatement, Blaise. All those months of being nice all gone in one single word. No doubt old Snape will be down on me like a ton of bricks and all that work will have been wasted because we won't finish the project — and that's a massive mark to lose. I was expecting to get an Outstanding for my N.E.W.T. because of all the great work we've done, but you know that won't count for anything with Snape if we don't finish the project. It'll have all been for nothing.'

'So what are you going to do?' Blaise asked.

Draco shrugged. 'What can I do? To be honest, if I thought it would help I'd apologise to her, I'm that desperate to finish the project, but I'm not sure it will. It took so long for both of us to build up our trust in each other, and it was so tenuous that one brief if heated argument was enough to ruin it. After all those months of acting like friends it must have seemed like a huge betrayal to Hermione when I called her a Mudblood.'

'So can't you work without being friends? You managed it well enough at first . . . and it's just as important for Granger that you complete the project, isn't it?' Blaise asked sensibly.

Draco shook his head. 'We wasted loads of time at the beginning,' he admitted. 'I held things up or did things wrong just to prove a point to Snape, although it didn't work. It was only once we got to about the third or fourth potion and I began to realise I could have an intelligent conversation with Hermione, and that she really did work hard and was as much of a perfectionist with her ingredients as me, that the chill thawed and we started to work as a team. If we go back to working separately we've got no chance. We're literally talking about the difference that a few minutes could make. I wasn't kidding that night when I said we had no time to stop working. That was part of the problem. We were both so busy with the bloody project still that Hermione wasn't getting a chance to revise, and brilliant as she is she's incredibly insecure about her grades.'

They left the dormitory and headed towards the common room.

'Then you'd better make it a bloody good apology,' Blaise told him.

Draco sighed again. 'And that's the problem. What do I say to make her forgive me? I already know calling her a Mudblood was the worst possible thing I could have said. That's why I did it.'

'I've no idea, mate,' Blaise said honestly feeling some of Draco's pain. He saw Pansy heading in their direction and grinned. 'But there's someone who'll take your mind off the problem for a little while.'

Draco groaned. 'Oh, gods. I don't want to talk to her, not at the moment.'

'I don't think you have any choice, Loverboy,' Blaise said, his grin even more wicked now.

'Morning, Draco,' Pansy simpered as she grabbed him, her lips finding his for a big squashy kiss. Draco tried to squirm out of her grasp but she was holding him too tightly. 'Did you sleep well?' she purred. 'I missed you.'

'Please let go of me, Pansy,' Draco said coldly as she tried to plant another kiss on him. 'We need to go to breakfast. I'm starving.'

Pansy released him but took hold of his hand, clutching it with a grip of steel. Knowing that this was the best he could hope for, Draco resigned himself to walking into the Great Hall with her and prayed that Hermione wouldn't be there or that she would be sitting with her back to him and wouldn't see him with Pansy.


	8. Chapter 8

Unfortunately for Draco he was out of luck on both counts. Hermione was at breakfast, looking wan and tired having not slept at all well, picking listlessly at her food as she ignored the conversation of her friends. She was annoyed with herself for continually glancing towards the door waiting for Draco to arrive, not wanting to see him but at the same time wanting it despite knowing the bitter pain that seeing him would cause; in the same way that you couldn't help but pick at a scab even knowing that it was going to sting like hell.

After he left it had taken her what seemed like forever to stop crying; so long, in fact, that she had begun to wonder whether she ever would stop. That Draco had walked out on her without giving her a chance to properly explain her fears was bad enough, but when he called her that foul name, had looked at her as if he hated her, she felt her heart tear and she thought it would kill her. It hadn't, of course. Instead she had cried until she was numb, until there were no more tears left inside her. Then she had slowly and methodically put away their ingredients and cleared up the potions laboratory, forcing herself to think of runes and their meanings rather than focusing on what had happened with Draco.

Once the room was completely clear and tidy she shakily made her way back to the Gryffindor common room, glad she didn't run into anyone she knew on the way. She spoke only briefly to Harry and Ron who, it seemed, were attempting to revise with Neville, Dean and Seamus. They had asked her to join them, clearly hoping she would help, but she wasn't in the mood for company so she cried off, claiming a headache that had cut short her work on the project. Needing to be alone she had gone to her room and closed the curtains around her bed for the first time in years to ensure her roommates didn't attempt to engage her in conversation when they finally came up to bed.

As she lay in the dark haven of her bed she thought back to the argument, trying to work out why it had happened and whether anything she could have said or done would have made any difference, but she honestly wasn't sure it would. She had been aware for a long time that Draco was growing ever more frustrated with her refusal to have sex with him, but she had underestimated the strength of that frustration and the fact that he didn't seem to care about whether it got in the way of the project or the exams. Perhaps she should have pushed herself to. . . .

Hermione sighed. She couldn't have pushed herself because the same problem still remained. It wasn't that she didn't want to have sex with Draco — she did, more than she had ever expected to desire it; but he was a Death Eater and that divide between them would always be a deal breaker. So perhaps she should have explained herself better. Blurting out that the reason they hadn't yet slept together was because he was a Death Eater was always going to anger Draco. But if she had quantified it properly, then. . . .

But it didn't matter, because Draco had called her a Mudblood. Hermione felt the tears prickle on her eyelashes. How could she still have any tears left? She scrubbed at her eyes to try to banish them as she remembered the moment Draco had broken her heart. That was when she realised for certain that she was in love with him, because it hurt so much. But it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Draco didn't feel the same way about her, whatever he had told her. He really had only been interested in getting her to submit to him sexually. His real feelings for her had never changed, otherwise surely he would never have been able to call her that disgusting name. He must have known how much it would hurt her.

Hermione could feel her heart pounding as she recalled the look on Draco's face as he shouted at her. He had been so angry and feeling hurt himself, imagining that she was rejecting him for being a Death Eater, so he had lashed out. Would things have been different if she had managed to calm him down long enough to explain, or would he still have called her a Mudblood? Was that really how he still thought of her?

The tears started again; silent trails running down her cheeks that she hadn't noticed, as engrossed as she was in her thoughts. She dug into her pyjama pocket looking for a tissue and wiped her eyes before blowing her nose. What was going to happen now? They hadn't completed the project, but surely they couldn't continue to work together after what had happened so now it would never get done. There was no way she could finish the project on her own even if she stopped revising completely; there just wasn't time. But how could they come back from this? She wasn't sure Draco would ever talk to her again, and even if he was willing to she wasn't sure she wanted to talk to him after what he had said. All their hard work was going to go to waste with no score to show for it and no chance of an Outstanding mark in the N.E.W.T.

Everything had been completely ruined by that one horrible word.

She eventually fell asleep but slept fitfully, haunted by old dreams of peril interspersed with Draco calling her a Mudblood. In these dreams he didn't save her. He was no longer her knight in shining armour but a dark and brooding stranger waiting for the signal to attack, and when she called out to him, begging him to help her, he only laughed cruelly and turned away, leaving her to her fate.

Hermione woke in a cold sweat. The dull grey of pre-dawn turned lighter as the sun came out and shone through the tower window. She pulled back the curtains, shivering, feeling more desolate and alone than she had the day before. She didn't know what she was going to do. Despite what Draco had called her she was still completely and utterly in love with him — but she wasn't sure she was able to forgive him, although a tiny part of her urged her to accept his apology if it came. She wanted to see him, wanted him to wrap his arms around her and kiss her the way he had done so many times before, wanted the stability and reassurance she had begun to take for granted; but even if he was willing, the insult had cut her to the quick and she wasn't sure she would believe him if he said he hadn't meant it.

Miserably, Hermione got dressed and made her way down to the common room to wait for Harry and Ron. She didn't really want to see them, she didn't want to see anyone but Draco, but knew they would be upset if she didn't wait to have breakfast with them. They had been concerned when they saw her but Hermione told them it was just lack of sleep and she would be fine once she had some breakfast and fortunately her friends had taken her at her word — presumably assuming that she had stayed up all night revising. When the three of them reached the Great Hall she debated whether to sit with her back to the Slytherin table so she couldn't see Draco when he arrived, but eventually took her normal seat, knowing that not seeing would drive her mad and anyway she didn't want to have to explain to Harry and Ron why she had moved.

She had just begun to wonder whether Draco had decided to skip breakfast when the blond-haired Slytherin entered the Great Hall. For a moment Hermione's heart soared at the sight of him but then she took in the whole picture with Pansy Parkinson, looking smugger than she had ever seen her, holding onto Draco like she was welded to him and simpering as if she was his girlfriend. The realisation that Draco must have had sex with Pansy was like a knife twisting in Hermione's heart and she had to work hard not to cry out with disappointment and disgust. Any thoughts she'd had about accepting Draco's apology were instantly cast away. He was finally showing his true colours; despite everything they had been through together it seemed he really hadn't changed a bit.

Hermione forced herself to sit at the table for another fifteen minutes even though she felt so ill that she couldn't eat or drink anything. She tried to drown out the sound of Pansy's irritating voice as the pug-faced girl crowed loudly about how wonderful it was to be back with Draco again. There was also some criticism of Hermione. Admittedly Draco didn't join in with it, but it took every ounce of self-control Hermione could muster to walk out of the Great Hall slowly and calmly with her head held high. She completely ignored Draco as she went, aware that he was trying to get her attention but not wanting to see that smug smile that had ruined so many of her days in the past.

She made her way to Arithmancy class, knowing she wouldn't be able to avoid Draco for long, but she had no intention of talking to him unless he absolutely forced her into it. Surprisingly, the pain he had caused by calling her a Mudblood, as acute as it had been at the time, was nothing compared to what she was feeling now that she knew he had cheated on her.

_It wasn't really cheating, though, was it? _a snide little voice in her mind tried to point out to her. _Your relationship was obviously over when he called you a Mudblood so it can't really be that much of a surprise that he went straight back to Pansy. It was only just before he argued with you that he admitted that he had almost had sex with her the night before, so he obviously decided he wanted her, not you. _

Although Hermione tried to ignore the spiteful voice, she couldn't help but think that maybe it was true. Perhaps the reason Draco had argued with her and called her that foul name was because he wanted to go back to Pansy and knew what he was doing was despicable after all the time he had spent trying to get Hermione into bed. That had to be the reason, otherwise why would he have done it when they were so close to finishing the project? It was madness to throw away their chance for an Outstanding mark just because of sex.

During the lesson Hermione sat as far away from Draco as she could and deliberately placed herself where she couldn't see him, determined not to let him get to her, but it was a difficult class as she couldn't concentrate at all. Instead her mind insisted on replaying the argument again, as if she hadn't already considered it to death. By the end of the lesson she felt more ill at ease than before as she now had even more work to catch up on. Before Draco could get hold of her, Hermione grabbed her bag and rushed back down to the Entrance Hall to join Harry and Ron, knowing that being with her friends would be enough to stop him from trying to talk to her. The three of them made their way to Charms class which, she was relieved to find, was a revision day and they were covering spells she already knew how to do without even thinking about, so she wasn't going to fall even further behind because of her inability to concentrate.

But the next class was Potions and Hermione could feel the nasty swirling feeling in her stomach again that made her feel nauseated. She was going to have to sit with Draco, there was no way out of that, and it wouldn't be nice. She thought back to the first day Professor Snape had paired them up and the way Draco had acted then — the same way he had acted towards her last night before he went back to Pansy — and her heart sank at the thought of having to spend an hour with him if he was going to continue to be unpleasant.

'I need to go to the loo,' she told Harry and Ron, feeling the sudden need to be alone for a moment. Tears were welling up and she was determined not to cry in public.

'Well, hurry up, then. You know what the great greasy git's like. He'll give you a rocket if you're late,' Ron said.

'Don't worry, I'll be back before Professor Snape comes out. Save a place for me in the queue.'

Hermione hurried down the corridor to the girls' toilet.

Draco watched Hermione disappear into the toilet and debated whether to wait for her in hopes of talking to her before the lesson started. He had seen her reaction when he entered the Great Hall with Pansy clinging to him and knew he had hurt her once again, at least as much as he had done the night before. That stupid little voice in his brain kept trying to convince him that he hadn't done anything wrong, that if anything, she had forced him back to Pansy, but he shut that thought down immediately. Of course he was in the wrong, and if only Hermione would give him the opportunity he would beg for her forgiveness . . . on his knees if he had to. But it seemed she really didn't want to talk to him as she had gone out of her way to keep away from him. He decided that trying to talk to her before Potions class was probably a bad move in case it started another argument. They would be sitting together as they always did, Hermione couldn't stop that from happening, so he would bide his time. Hopefully once the lesson got going he would have a chance to talk to her, and in the classroom setting with all the other people around she wouldn't be able to brush him off or get annoyed with him.

Smiling now at the thought of finally getting to talk to Hermione, Draco made his way to the front of the queue and pushed his way in to join his Slytherin colleagues, ignoring the complaints of two Ravenclaw girls who had been waiting patiently.

* * *

><p>Professor Snape felt his heart sink as he watched Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger, who were sitting at the desk in front of him. It was clear from the moment they walked into the room that something wasn't right between them and as the lesson continued the feeling hadn't decreased. After Draco's outburst at the beginning of the project Snape had begun to wonder whether pairing them together had been rather too ambitious; it had taken the boy a month or so before he really settled into what they were supposed to be doing and until that point he was quite disruptive, regardless of whatever punishments were threatened. But as the months passed they got into their stride and produced some magnificent work between them, and Snape decided he hadn't made a mistake after all. It was true that they'd had to work more closely than most of the other pairs as the project they had been given was extremely challenging on all levels, but then he had been trying to test them, pushing them to see what they could achieve if the barriers that had always been between them were removed, and it had worked even better than he had hoped.<p>

Hermione had got Draco working, properly working, for probably the first time in his life, and it actually suited the intelligent boy to get stuck in rather than mucking around with his friends and banking on his money and his pure-blood Slytherin status to get him through, as was usually the case. Snape had watched the couple move from the hatred that had always been there, through grudging respect to mutual appreciation of their talents, and finally to a friendship that, if given the chance, could be pretty special. It was nice to see the couple getting on so well and Draco ignoring the bigotry of his friends, but Snape was a realist and knew that once the project was over things were likely to return to the way they had been before; the pressure of Draco's peers and family, not to mention his loyalty to the Dark Lord, were stronger than any fragile relationship he may have built with Hermione. It was a shame, as they complimented each other in so many ways, and Snape had been hopeful that Draco would at least keep the respect he had gained for Hermione, which would make it that much harder for him to go up against her when the war started that was so close now.

But something had obviously gone wrong and it was clear from the way they were interacting today that they weren't speaking to each other. It was reminiscent of the first day they had sat together, Draco deliberately ignoring his new partner and being belligerent and unreasonable, but this time it seemed to be Hermione who was causing the distance between them. For a moment Snape wondered whether they had finished the project ahead of schedule and resumed hostilities, but he had a horrible feeling this wasn't the case. Draco and Hermione weren't talking to each other because of an argument, and if it was allowed to continue it would jeopardise everything they had worked so hard to achieve over the last year. Snape didn't want to draw the attention of the rest of the class to their quarrel, though, so he would have to wait until the end of the lesson to find out what was wrong.

As the class worked, Snape studied the couple more intently. It was clear, if you were looking for it, that Hermione was unhappy. She looked hurt, whereas Draco looked . . . well, he looked guilty. His heart sinking even further, Snape pondered what Draco could have done to prompt such responses in both of them. He could think of one thing but really hoped the boy hadn't been that stupid, not so close to the end of the project. Snape had hoped that as their friendship grew Draco would stop thinking of Hermione as different from him and realise that calling her a Mudblood was wrong. And as far as Snape was aware Draco had stopped, even if to begin with it was only because he had been threatened with detention and a visit to the Headmaster. But if he had called her a Mudblood after all this time what had Hermione done to provoke him? It was a mystery Snape was going to have to get to the bottom of.

'I'd like a word with you before you leave, Mr Malfoy,' Snape told Draco as the blond-haired boy was packing his bag at the end of the lesson.

Draco glanced at Hermione for a moment, wondering whether she had spoken to the teacher about what had happened. He didn't want to stay behind. Having not managed to get a word out of Hermione during the lesson he had intended to try to talk to her before she went to lunch and staying to talk to Professor Snape would give her the chance to escape him yet again. But he knew he had no choice. If his Head of House wanted to talk to him he had to obey, not try to find an excuse for why he had to leave. He watched disappointedly as Hermione joined her friends on the way out of the classroom, not even looking back at him.

When the last person had left and the door was closed, Snape looked critically at Draco.

'What did you do, Mr Malfoy?' Snape's tone was confrontational, knowing it was likely to be the only way he could get the cagey boy to say anything.

Annoyance spread through Draco at the thought that Professor Snape was blaming him for the argument without even knowing what was going on, and this automatically made him bullish. He glared at the Potions Master.

'Nothing,' he said truculently. 'I haven't done anything and I don't know why you would assume it was my fault.'

'Come now, Mr Malfoy. The tension between you and Miss Granger today was strangely reminiscent of your first day as partners. I couldn't help but wonder whether anything else in your behaviour was reminiscent of that time,' Snape said meaningfully.

Draco scowled more deeply. 'I didn't do anything, Professor,' he insisted. 'Why aren't you interrogating Hermione instead of me?'

'I have every intention of talking to Miss Granger,' Snape replied calmly. 'But I wanted to give you the chance to explain first. It was clear from your expressions that you were the one who caused the bad feeling between you. Miss Granger looked hurt, whereas you looked guilty.'

Draco stared at him for a moment as if assessing what to say, then he sighed.

'All right, it _was_ me. I was a bloody idiot. I was annoyed with Hermione and I called her a Mudblood.'

Snape didn't look surprised at Draco's confession but internally he sighed with disappointment at being right.

'Why did you call her that? I thought you had learned not to use that word. I thought you realised there was more to Miss Granger than you had always supposed,' he said, sounding disappointed.

Draco looked uncomfortable at this question. 'I don't really want to talk about it,' he said dully.

His temper was now gone as he thought about Hermione being so upset. Even old Snape had picked up on it. But how could he explain why he had done it? He had always been surprised that the Potions Master was so vehemently against the disparaging term for Muggle-borns when he was a Death Eater, too, and must hate them just as much as the rest of the Dark Lord's followers did. But with Snape being a close friend of his father there was no way Draco could admit the real reason he had been annoyed with Hermione; that would be tantamount to suicide and would probably get Hermione killed, even though nothing had really happened between them. What could he say that would adequately explain his reaction without giving away the truth?

As Snape continued to stare at Draco, a vision of Lily and the terrible day that had ruined his relationship with her forever came into his mind. He had been very much in love with the beautiful redhead and had never meant to hurt her, but his fury at Potter and Black had been so virulent and all-consuming that he had lashed out at her, in shame and anger, and in doing so he had lost his girlfriend. He had tried hard to apologise but Lily wouldn't accept it; that terrible word had caused so much devastation and hurt, ruining his life with no hope of reconciliation. Since that fateful day he had never been able to stomach anyone using the word, especially the students.

Was it possible that things between Draco and Hermione had gone even further than friendship? Had they become romantically involved and were experiencing the same problem he and Lily had faced all those years ago? It would certainly explain why Draco was unwilling to talk to him about the subject of their argument. As a Death Eater and close friend of his father, Draco would be worried about reaction to such a confession. And if it was true, it was unlikely that Hermione would confide in him, either. Worse still, if it was true, then based upon his own experience it was possible that nothing could be done to reconcile the couple — all their hard work would be wasted, the N.E.W.T. would be forfeited and both of their lives would be made far worse by what had happened.

Snape felt a momentary flash of guilt. This was his fault — his and Albus'. If the blasted Headmaster hadn't taken it into his head to try to unite the school none of this would have happened. Hermione and Draco would both be heading towards their N.E.W.T. exams with their project successfully under their belts and as ready for the exam as they could ever hope to be. Obviously it wasn't completely Albus' fault. Snape knew he could still have paired the couple with other people to ensure there was no chance of disruption, but his desire to see what his two best students could achieve if they were really pushed had swept away all ideas of caution. He had taken a chance and it had gone against him, as everything in his life always did eventually, and because of that chance those same two best students were about to fail their exams unless he could do something to stop it from happening.

Less harshly now, he said, 'I don't really care why you said it, Mr Malfoy. It's none of my business or anyone else's what happened between you and Miss Granger. It's just extremely disappointing to hear that you used that derogatory term, especially after all this time. I thought you more intelligent than that. Can I assume that you haven't worked on the project together since the argument took place?'

Draco shook his head, looking even more miserable now.

'As I said, I don't care what happened or why, but I do care about you and Miss Granger finishing the project. So you are going to make every effort to apologise to her, Mr Malfoy. You will do anything you need to do in order to make her accept the apology and agree to work with you again. Do you understand me?'

'She won't even look at me,' Draco said miserably. 'So how the hell am I supposed to get her to talk to me?'

'As I said, I shall be having a word with Miss Granger. I will make it equally clear to her that she needs to end this feud,' Snape answered.

'Don't be mean to her, though,' Draco blurted out without thinking. Then he added more contritely, 'It's really not her fault, sir. I was the one who lost my temper and shouted. I was the one who called her a Mudblood. And now all my friends know and they've been rubbing it in all morning, which can only have made things worse.'

Draco thought back to breakfast in the Great Hall for a moment and the conversation between his friends that had surely been loud enough for Hermione to hear. His heart twinged painfully as he recalled the look on Hermione's face when she saw Pansy clinging to him, and the way she had held her head high as she left the room, trying to ignore the hurtful comments that were being made about her, although he knew inside she was in pain. Even if by some miracle she forgave him for calling her that foul name, Draco knew she would never forgive him for what he had done with Pansy.

'Then you have your work cut out,' Snape said, his voice matter-of-fact. 'I expect the two of you to be working together on the project after school as usual — I will be checking. I assume you are on the last potion?'

Draco nodded. 'We were just about to start it when we had the argument.'

'Then you've no time to waste,' Snape told him. 'I suggest you apologise to her directly after lunch. I will speak to her in here and you can wait outside and talk to her once she leaves.'

'Thank you, sir,' Draco said, although he wasn't sure why he was thanking the teacher for forcing him through the pain of confronting Hermione.

He picked up his bag and walked towards the door.

'Don't let this come between you and Miss Granger, Mr Malfoy,' Snape said suddenly. He sounded sympathetic.

Draco turned to look at him, trying to work out whether Professor Snape knew about him and Hermione being a couple. He wasn't sure what the look he saw on the Potion Master's face meant.

'I'll try not to,' he promised, hoping it would be possible.


	9. Chapter 9

Professor Snape cornered Hermione on her way out of the Great Hall after lunch and requested she meet him in the Potions classroom so he could talk to her. She had been half expecting it after he kept Draco behind and she had thought all through lunch about what she would say to him whilst wondering what, if anything, Draco had told him about the argument.

'Would you care to tell me what is going on between you and Mr Malfoy?' Snape asked once they were safely ensconced in his classroom, keeping his voice even.

'We had an argument,' Hermione replied in a small voice.

'An argument. Yes, thank you, Miss Granger. I think a malformed mountain troll who had never met the two of you before would be able to work out that you'd had an argument. Perhaps you could enlighten me as to what was so important that you had such a huge row only days before finishing your project,' Snape retorted sarcastically.

Hermione stared at him looking miserable for a moment, then shook her head.

'I see,' Snape said, his voice several degrees colder now. 'So you got touchy about something Mr Malfoy did and overreacted, did you?'

Hermione bristled at the inference that she was to blame for the argument, although she should have expected it. Professor Snape was always biased towards the Slytherins. Annoyed, she suddenly decided she wasn't going to protect Draco after all. She had no idea what excuse her ex-boyfriend had given his Head of House, although whatever it was he had clearly painted her in a bad light. Professor Snape would hear the truth from her even if he didn't like it, and if he refused to believe her she would insist on seeing the Headmaster to get the justice she deserved. Draco had been warned several times what would happen if he continued to use that horrid word and now she wanted to see him punished for it. Nothing she could ever do to him would hurt as much as he had hurt her, but at least it would be a start.

Glaring at the Potions Master, she said coldly, 'Draco called me a Mudblood.'

Snape stared back at her for a moment and then shrugged, seemingly uncaring. 'So what? He's called you that many times over the years, Miss Granger. Surely you must be used to it by now.'

Hermione looked hurt at Snape's comment and thrown off balance by it. She could feel tears welling again as she thought of Draco.

'It was such a long time since he last said it,' she said, her voice only just louder than a whisper. 'I thought things had changed and we were . . . .' She broke off as if floundering for what to say, then in a tiny voice added, '. . . friends.'

'Why did he call you that, Miss Granger?' Snape asked, his voice more sympathetic now.

Hermione shook her head again.

'I need to know, Miss Granger, so I can judge how serious this is — bearing in mind that you still have a project to complete together.'

Hermione looked completely stricken. 'I can't,' she said quietly.

'Can't what, Miss Granger?'

'Can't work with Draco,' Hermione said, her voice miserable and on the verge of tears.

'Then explain to me why,' Snape insisted.

'Because he called me a Mudblood,' Hermione retorted, as if that was enough, which as far as she was concerned it should be.

Surely Professor Snape could understand where she was coming from. He had always been so annoyed whenever he caught anyone using the word in the past. The truth was that she didn't even want to recall what Draco had done with Pansy — that was too much, and if the pain in her heart was anything to go by it would probably kill her if she thought about it too hard.

Snape knew there had to be more to their argument than the insult. It was true that he and Lily had split up because of that word but they hadn't been working together on a project for their N.E.W.T.s at the time. If they had, he knew Lily would have sucked it up until the project was over, determined not to fail, and depressingly that might conceivably have given him the time he needed to convince her not to end the relationship. Instead it had happened just after their exams and there was no project to bring them back together. But that was enough about him and Lily. He had to sort out this problem with Hermione and Draco. Whatever had caused Draco to harangue Hermione was what he wanted to know about and was the true cause of her refusal to continue working with the boy. Snape was certain that if it was only the name-calling, Hermione, like Lily, would stick it out until the project was complete.

'I understand that his use of that insult after such a long time was enough to upset you, Miss Granger, but considering the amount of work you've done together on the project, surely that isn't enough for you to let it all fall apart . . . to fail your exam. So I ask again: why can't you work with Mr Malfoy?'

Hermione closed her eyes in an effort to stop the tears that threatened. Professor Snape was obviously going to hound her until she gave him an explanation he believed, and she had no idea what to say. She wished she knew what Draco had told him so she could have had time to concoct a story of her own. For a moment she thought of telling the teacher the truth, of admitting their relationship, but she knew he was a good friend of Lucius Malfoy's and it was just too dangerous. What could she say? Hermione's heart clattered with panic and her stomach roiled. Her brain was suddenly a complete blank and she couldn't think of a single excuse, certainly not one that Professor Snape was likely to believe.

She could feel the bile rising in her throat as she realised she had no choice but to tell the truth. But she couldn't do it; couldn't be the one who put her and Draco in danger — because whatever Draco had told the teacher, he obviously hadn't mentioned their relationship. She bit the inside of her bottom lip as she hurriedly considered. Perhaps Professor Snape would stop pushing if she told him about Lucius Malfoy. That would be enough to hint at what had happened between her and Draco, and hopefully the Potions Master would let it rest. Then she wouldn't have to admit what Draco had actually done to her.

'Well, come on, Miss Granger, tell me the truth.' Snape's voice was losing its warmth again, knowing he needed to get her to talk quickly. He had a class due to start shortly and Draco still needed to talk to her before they went to their own afternoon classes.

A look of fear crossed Hermione's face and she shook her head again. 'I can't,' she whispered miserably. 'If Lucius Malfoy—'

With those words Snape knew he had confirmation that he was right about Draco and Hermione having been a romantic couple. There was no other reason for either of them to fear Lucius as he was already unhappily aware they were project partners. Whilst his friend didn't like the pairing and had complained vociferously to Snape at the outset, he had eventually accepted, albeit unwillingly, that he had no say in how the Potions Master ran his classes; and even more grudgingly admitted that Hermione was Draco's nearest match in terms of ability. Wanting to ease Hermione's distress and hoping that it might prompt her to tell him exactly what had happened, he interrupted before she could say anything more.

'I can assure you, Miss Granger, anything you tell me will not be repeated to _anyone_ outside this room, and certainly not to Lucius Malfoy. You can talk to me in the strictest confidence.'

Hermione studied him carefully for a moment, weighing up whether he was telling her the truth, then decided she would take a chance and confide in him. Although Professor Snape appeared to be a Death Eater, the same as Draco and his father, Hermione knew that in reality he was a member of the Order of the Phoenix and was using his position within Voldemort's ranks to spy for Professor Dumbledore, or so she had been told. Hopefully this was true and he would stick to his word and not tell Lucius Malfoy about her relationship with Draco; he would surely be aware of the repercussions of doing that.

She knew the Potions Master had never really liked her, mainly because she was a bit of a know-it-all, but surely he wouldn't put her or his favourite student, Draco, in a position where their lives could be in danger, would he? And now it came to it, the chance to share with someone else the pain of what had happened was something she realised she desperately needed. It had been so hard keeping everything a secret, not able to talk to anyone about it; especially when what had happened in the end was so hurtful.

'Draco was annoyed that I was more interested in getting the project finished and exam revision done than being with him,' she said. Then, feeling the need to be completely truthful if she was going to do this, she admitted, 'I had been having some problems coming to terms with him being a Death Eater.'

Snape looked surprised for a moment. So the relationship was serious enough that Draco had told her about his affiliation with the Dark Lord. No wonder they were worried about Lucius finding out.

'How long has this been going on?' Snape asked interestedly.

'We've been a couple since Draco was tasked to take me to Vol—' Snape glared at her use of Voldemort's name and she hurriedly amended— 'You-Know-Who.' She swallowed, then asked, 'Did you know he had been asked to take me, sir?'

Snape inclined his head a little. 'I had heard something on the grapevine. I wasn't at the meeting so I didn't hear the command myself, but a couple of other students were there and I overheard them talking about it afterwards. The Headmaster was informed immediately, of course, but we weren't too worried as we knew you couldn't be abducted unless you left school grounds and you were far too busy working on the project for that to happen.'

'It almost did, though,' Hermione told him, making Snape look at her in surprise again. 'The Hogsmeade weekend after the Death Eater meeting I was the only person in our Potions class to go to the village. Everyone was busy with the project, and I honestly didn't want to waste the time when I could have been working on my potion too, but I urgently needed more stationery and I also had a list of things others wanted from the village since I had decided to go. I thought Draco was staying behind to continue with the potion we were working on while I went shopping and I was due to join him when I got back. That's what we had agreed, anyway.' She broke off for a moment, thinking about how scared she had been when Draco threatened to take her to Voldemort. 'I was walking past the Hog's Head pub on my way back to the school when Draco grabbed me. He told me he had been tasked by You-Know-Who to take me to him so he could use me to lure Harry into a trap. Draco said he had been promised that I would be his once the plan had successfully been achieved.'

Snape's brain was whirring as he thought about the implication of what Hermione had just told him. It was extremely worrying that she had come so close to being abducted, but it seemed that Draco's desire for her ran far deeper than either Snape or the Dark Lord had realised. Somehow she had managed to stop him from doing something that would have been catastrophic if it had come off in the way Voldemort intended.

The Dark Lord must have read Draco's mind, seen his desire, and used the possibility of a relationship with the beautiful girl without incurring Lucius' wrath as a fillip to get the boy to do his bidding. Snape was certain, however, that no such relationship would have been allowed to flourish if the plan had been successful. After killing Potter the Dark Lord would have slaughtered Hermione, and quite probably Draco, too. He definitely wouldn't be happy that one of his inner circle had become a blood-traitor and would choose make an example of him, wanting to show the rest of his followers what happened to those who went against his wishes. Draco's death would also have punished Lucius even further for his failure at the Ministry of Magic. Now Snape had to know what Hermione had done to stop Draco; he was also intrigued to know just how intimate their relationship was.

'When you say "his,"' Snape led as tactfully as he could.

'His lover,' Hermione said. 'You-Know-Who told Draco that I would be his lover and his father would be able to do nothing to stop it.'

Snape nodded as if he understood, but then asked with a slight frown, 'And was this the first time that anything . . . erm . . . romantic had happened between you?'

Hermione blushed and shook her head. 'I suppose it really began back when we were on the third potion, the one where we got attacked by the troll in the Forbidden Forest. Draco saved my life because I tripped right in front of the troll and sprained my ankle. He came back and picked me up and carried me out of the forest to safety.' Her voice dropped to just above a whisper, as if she was embarrassed at what she was admitting. 'I was so grateful for what he'd done that I kissed him. I still don't know why because I'd never wanted to kiss him before. It was just adrenaline, I suppose.'

'And what did Mr Malfoy do?' Snape asked interestedly.

'He kissed me back.' Hermione bit her bottom lip nervously. 'We kissed a few times over the next few months but it was just the odd one-off, nothing to get too het up over. But then Draco started going on about us being a couple . . . but having to keep it a secret so his father and friends didn't find out.'

'I take it you weren't too happy about that,' Snape said.

Hermione looked at him in surprise. 'What makes you say that? I'm friends with Harry and Ron, remember. They still detest Draco and he them, so they wouldn't have been happy to find out about the two of us.'

'I'm sorry, I jumped to conclusions,' Snape replied, sounding contrite.

Hermione sighed loudly. 'As it happens, you were right. Even though I knew Harry and Ron would be furious with me I had my pride. I didn't want to be Draco's dirty little secret, so I told him no. It made working together quite difficult for a few weeks and the project nearly fell apart then. The next thing I knew I was being pushed up against a wall and Draco was telling me he was going to take me to You-Know-Who and that he knew all about us. I tried to convince Draco that he would never allow us to be a couple. I thought it was obvious that he was going to use me to get to Harry and then he would kill both of us and maybe Draco, too, but I just wasn't able to convince Draco. He was certain You-Know-Who would keep his word, so I had no choice but to agree to be his girlfriend . . . on the condition that he _didn't_ take me to You-Know-Who. Fortunately Draco finally agreed and let me return to school, but he thought I meant there would be rather more to the relationship than I actually meant, so there were a few more minor arguments after that.'

Snape waited to see what she was going to say next, although he thought he had a fairly good idea where the story was going now.

Hermione glanced at him, then blushed again as she admitted, 'Draco was getting annoyed that we weren't getting more . . . erm . . . intimate. But I was having a problem. I really like Draco but I can't cope with him being a Death Eater. How could I go with him knowing that what they and their master want is to rid the wizarding world of people like me? How could we be lovers yet be on different sides in the war? So I stalled and used the need to work on the project, and then the need to revise for the exams, to put off the inevitable. But Draco got fed up with waiting. I knew he was frustrated, he had told me so often enough, but before I had a chance to properly explain about the Death Eater thing he lost his temper and called me a Mudblood. It really hurt . . . although not as much as finding out that he went straight back to Pansy and—'

Hermione stopped abruptly as she felt the tears escaping, her heart tearing again from remembrance of what Draco had done to her. She scrubbed at her eyes to force away the tears.

'I see,' Snape said quietly, trying to keep his voice neutral. 'I can certainly understand why you were upset, Miss Granger, although I can sympathise with Mr Malfoy, too. It must have been extremely difficult for him working so closely with you for such extended periods considering the significant desire he's obviously been battling with.' Hermione stared at him in annoyance. Snape, realising that she thought he was siding with Draco, hurriedly added, 'I'm not excusing what he did, though, please don't think that.'

Hermione sighed again and said unhappily, 'I know he was frustrated but I begged him to wait until after the exams, when we would have more time to sort it out. When he started shouting at me I tried to get him to let me explain about my difficulty with us being on different sides. But then he called me a Mudblood and I realised that he didn't really care about me at all. I thought he'd changed, that he'd realised I was the same as him, but he hadn't really. He just wanted to get in my knickers and was angry that I hadn't let him. Going off with Pansy proved that conclusively. It hurt so much to know what he did with her . . . even more than what he said.'

'He realises he's been foolish,' Snape told her gently. 'He really is very sorry for what he's done.'

'I can't even bear to look at him at the moment,' Hermione told the teacher honestly. 'It hurts every time I even think about it. It doesn't matter what he says, he must have thought I was a Mudblood to call me that.' She didn't mention Pansy again as that was just too painful.

'Mr Malfoy did tell me what he had done,' Snape told her.

'Then why did you make me tell you?' Hermione asked sounding wretched.

'Because I wanted to hear your side of things. I understand that you're feeling hurt by what happened, and that's understandable . . . and justifiable, too. But is it worth failing your Potions exam over, Miss Granger? I understand it will be a little uncomfortable initially but I honestly believe you should talk to Mr Malfoy and allow him to apologise to you. He is truly sorry and I don't believe for one minute that he still sees you as a Mudblood. He wouldn't have been able to have a relationship of any sort with you if he did. He just lashed out in anger and resorted to name-calling as he knew it would upset you.'

'And then he shagged Pansy,' Hermione pointed out, the bitterness spewing forth before she could stop it. 'What was his excuse for that?'

'He didn't mention that to me, although to be fair he was hardly likely to. Obviously I am not party to Mr Malfoy's feelings but I suspect that just as his anger made him verbally abuse you, he then went on to do the one thing that he knew would truly upset you. I suspect from his demeanour today that Mr Malfoy not only regrets hurting you but that he also regrets his action with regards to Miss Parkinson,' Snape said, keeping his voice reasonable.

Hermione looked at him sceptically. 'But you don't know that. You said he didn't tell you about it.'

'No, and he was unlikely to. He was trying to protect you,' Snape pointed out. 'Unlike you, who are aware of my role within the Order of the Phoenix, Mr Malfoy believes me to be a loyal Death Eater and a spy for the Dark Lord. I am also a good friend of his father and I'm certain he was convinced, as you were to begin with, that if I were to find out about your relationship I would immediately tell Lucius. I think we all know how Lucius would react to such news, hence the reason for Draco wanting to keep your relationship a secret in the first place and his refusal to discuss what caused the argument. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that you are not Lucius' favourite person, Miss Granger, especially after the Ministry of Magic debacle. Of all the people Lucius would not want his son involved with romantically, you are firmly at the top of the list.'

'Or maybe he just didn't want to admit what a bastard he'd been,' Hermione retorted. 'Let's face it, it's hard to respect someone who is abusive and cheats.'

'But Mr Malfoy did tell me what he called you, even though he knew I would punish him for it. I think he wanted the punishment because he knew he'd done wrong. He was definitely upset at hurting you. I understand why you're not happy with him but I really think you need to talk to him, let him explain his side of the story, and then you can explain properly to him why the relationship isn't going as he had hoped.' Snape stopped and looked at Hermione for a moment, taking in her unhappy expression. 'You care for Mr Malfoy very deeply, don't you, Miss Granger?'

Hermione stared at him for a moment, then nodded. She looked downcast and beaten.

'He cares for you, too, you know.' Hermione opened her mouth to speak but Snape raised his hand to stop her. 'I know, you're going to mention what he did again, but I tell you it was purely sexual frustration and anger that fuelled both of his actions that upset you. You need to think back to when Mr Malfoy was going to take you to the Dark Lord. Do you have any concept, Miss Granger, of just what he risked to not do as he was ordered? That he listened to you and did as you asked is a testament to how much he cares for you.'

'He thought I was going to have sex with him,' Hermione reminded Snape sharply. 'That's why he did it. Not to save me from You-Know-Who. If I hadn't agreed to be his girlfriend he would have taken me. He told me a few weeks later he wished he had done.'

'It's true that he probably did wish that and it would have been partly because he was sexually frustrated. But I can assure you that the main reason would have been because he felt guilt at not carrying out the Dark Lord's orders, and it would be making him anxious. You were right to try to stop him, Miss Granger, but had anyone seen you in Hogsmeade that day, Draco's life would have been forfeit for not doing as he was told. It may still be. The Dark Lord hasn't held another meeting since then so currently Draco is okay, because as far as the Dark Lord knows he hasn't had a chance to take you. But if one word reaches him that you were out of school that day, and that Draco knew you were in Hogsmeade and didn't do as he was ordered . . . well, I don't think I need to spell it out, do I? You're an intelligent girl and you know what happens to those who upset the Dark Lord.'

'Is that likely?' Hermione asked quietly, worry showing in her voice.

Snape stared at her intently for a couple of seconds. 'I honestly don't know. There are spies of all sorts all over the wizarding world and Hogsmeade is no exception. You were fortunate that most of Mr Malfoy's friends who are also Death Eaters remained at school because of the project. But there are plenty of people with ties to the Death Eaters who might think nothing of mentioning seeing you or him.'

'That's why I want him to give up this Death Eater crap,' Hermione said unhappily. 'The Order of the Phoenix would protect him if he decided to join us, wouldn't they?'

Snape sighed. 'They would. If Mr Malfoy chose to come across then they would accept him, although it would take some time before he was trusted enough to be let in on anything of any real importance. But you can't just walk away from the Death Eaters, Miss Granger. It's not that easy. For Mr Malfoy it's even harder as his father and his mother, too, to some extent, are tied up with them, as are aunts and uncles and several of his closest friends. It would be like asking you to give up everything you've ever held dear to become a Death Eater, knowing that the friends and family you were leaving behind were likely to be punished for your desertion. Obviously you can't do that because you're Muggle-born, but I'm sure you understand the analogy.'

Hermione nodded, feeling guilty herself now. Throughout their relationship she had never really properly considered what Draco was going through. She now saw that she had been selfish and cruel in her demands, so perhaps she deserved what had happened.

'And now you're thinking it's your fault and you deserve what Mr Malfoy did to you,' Snape said shrewdly. 'I can assure you it's not your fault. You are both young and have a lot to learn, and unfortunately you don't have much time because the war is coming — and soon. You both handled the situation badly, although I know you thought you were doing the right thing, Miss Granger. If you care for Mr Malfoy at all, then please give him another chance — or at least give him the time to explain why he did what he did. You are both more aware now, so I don't think it could happen again, especially if you consider both sides before you act.'

'But it hurt so much,' Hermione's voice was just above a whisper. 'I just don't know if I can forgive him for what he did. To be honest, if it was just the Mudblood thing I probably could get over that, but what he did with Pansy—'

She broke off, choked up and shaking her head, her eyes closing as she tried to stop the tears that had sprung into them, unable to say more.

'Then you no longer care for Mr Malfoy?' Snape asked.

'Of course I do,' Hermione retorted, a touch sourly. She had failed to avert the tears from falling and now, grabbing a tissue from her pocket, she dabbed hurriedly at her eyes trying to control them. When she spoke a few seconds later, the rancour was gone as she admitted, 'I'm in love with him. That's why it hurts so much.'

Snape studied her for a moment as she continued to dry her eyes, then told her, 'If that's true, then there's even more reason for you to not let this spiral out of control. Give Mr Malfoy the chance to prove himself to you. He will do it, I'm certain of it.'

Hermione just stared at him miserably, apparently too upset to argue any more.

'You both need to finish this project — and believe me, Miss Granger, one way or another I will make you do it. If you refuse to talk to Mr Malfoy it will be uncomfortable and painful for both of you, and as I'm sure you're well aware by now, making potions is a delicate art and you need to _concentrate_. So I suggest the two of you take the opportunity to discuss what has happened as soon as possible. You're both wasting time that I know you don't have to spare,' Snape said, his voice hard and sombre now that he had to get through to Hermione. 'You both finish at four o'clock today?'

Hermione shook her head. 'Draco finishes at three. Usually he gets the potion out of stasis or prepares the ingredients while he waits for me. We always brew the potion together.'

'Then Mr Malfoy will do just as he would always do, although I would suggest that he not wait for you before starting the brewing process if he is ready to go earlier. You really are both up against it now, time-wise, and need to claw back wherever you can. You, Miss Granger, will join Mr Malfoy after your final class of the day. I will stop by your lab sometime shortly after the end of school to check that you are both there and working, so I suggest you don't dawdle. If you are not both there then you will both find yourself in permanent detention until the end of the school year — and believe me, I can find some extremely distasteful things for you to do that will severely impact your remaining revision time for all your classes. On top of this I shall withdraw you both from the Potions exam as I will be failing you for not completing your project, and there would be little point in sitting the exam when the best you could hope to achieve would be a D.'

Hermione glared at Professor Snape, furious at what he was forcing her to do, although part of her was glad he was doing it. She wanted to finish the project and she was sure Draco did too, she just wasn't sure she could talk to him or forgive him.

'Do I make myself clear, Miss Granger?' Snape asked.

Hermione nodded.

'I know it will be hard,' Snape admitted. 'But the key is to talk to Mr Malfoy. Clear the air between you and the way will be much simpler . . . especially if you want to convince him to join the Order of the Phoenix.'

Hermione looked at Snape in surprise and shook her head. 'I don't think I could ask that of him now, whatever happens. It wouldn't be fair.'

'Even to save his life, and to save your relationship?' Snape asked quietly. 'If I'm right about how Mr Malfoy feels about you, I think there's a good chance you could bring him round. The Dark Lord knows he's a blood-traitor and will not hesitate to have him killed if it suits his purpose. If he suspects how you feel about Mr Malfoy in return it will give him much ammunition to use against you, and Potter as well once the war starts. Would you be able to watch Mr Malfoy being tortured because you refused to do something the Dark Lord ordered? Do you think Mr Malfoy would be able to kill or torture you if he was ordered to? If he couldn't, he would most certainly suffer in your place. I suspect he would prefer that to seeing you in pain, but what would that do to you, Miss Granger?'

'But his family would hate him,' Hermione argued. 'That's why I always knew this relationship wouldn't work out. At the end he will need to be with them and I have to be with Harry. All that's happened is that it's ended early, which is probably for the best.'

'Except that you love each other. Tell me how being apart is for the best when that's the case?' Snape asked. 'You're wrong about his family, by the way. Yes, Bellatrix will probably disown him, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing under the circumstances, considering her mental state. Narcissa just wants her son to be happy, and I know for a fact that she wasn't pleased when he took the Dark Mark, even though she stood by him and understood why he had to do it. She would be happy if he was away from the Dark Lord, even if he was with you. She would know he was safer with the Order of the Phoenix than subject to the whims of that madman. Lucius would not be so happy, it's true, but then he is much changed from his old self. Azkaban took a lot out of him so maybe he, too, would just prefer that his son was safe, although being with you would be a hard thing for him to take.'

'I don't even know if Draco will talk to me, so I certainly can't make any promises about getting him away from You-Know-Who,' Hermione said.

'He'll definitely talk to you if you give him the opportunity,' Snape told her with conviction. 'He's waiting outside for you right now.' More gently he added, 'Please go and talk to him.'

Hermione looked scared for a moment at the revelation that Draco was outside the door, then took a deep breath as if to ready herself. She nodded. 'I'll see you later this afternoon, sir,' she said stoically.

'This _is_ worth doing, Miss Granger,' Snape said, and he gave her a kind smile.

'I hope you're right,' Hermione replied. She gave him a weak smile in return and walked towards the door, then turned back to look at him. 'Are you going to wish me luck?'

'Do you need it?' Snape asked.

Hermione thought for a second, then shook her head. 'Not really. It's not luck I need, it's a metal heart.'

Snape gave her another smile. 'I think you'll be fine, Miss Granger. Just remember that you both need to listen as well as talk, and make sure that finishing the project is your primary goal regardless of whatever else you decide. If you can work together for that, you can get through anything.'

Hermione thought about Snape's advice. 'Thank you. I'll remember that.' She opened the door, then turned back again as if remembering something. 'Can we get an extension on the project, Professor Snape?'

Snape stared at her, his face unreadable. 'We'll discuss that when I see you both later. Now go, or you won't have time to talk before afternoon lessons start.'


	10. Chapter 10

Professor Snape was right. Draco was waiting outside the door for Hermione. He had been pacing relentlessly, wondering what was taking her so long. He had no idea what she and the Potions Master were talking about but he had to hope that she wasn't telling him about their relationship otherwise his father would soon be on the warpath. Had she told Snape what Draco had done to her? Professor Snape already knew about him calling her a Mudblood, but Draco hadn't mentioned anything about Pansy. That would have been enough for the teacher to work out why they had been arguing, so it needed to stay a secret. But Draco was certain that given the amount of time Hermione had now spent in the Potions classroom, his stupid indiscretion was no longer a secret. Would Professor Snape be as disgusted with him as he was with himself, Draco wondered?

He thought back to the night before, remembering the anger that had overwhelmed him as he stormed back to the Slytherin common room still raging about Hermione rejecting him for being a Death Eater when he had turned himself into a blood-traitor for her. He knew he should have stayed to hear her explanation as she had begged him to do, but he had been far too angry for that, which was why he had missed those two key words that had broken his heart when he remembered them this morning and realised just how stupid he had been and how much he had lost.

Calling her a Mudblood had been underhanded and cruel but was a quick win to make him feel better at the time. Taking Pansy to bed had been so much worse, and not just because it had hurt Hermione. But the anger had caused his libido to rage too, and with his new-found fury it had seemed a good idea at the time as he cared only about relieving the frustration Hermione had caused. That it would cause her pain was a bonus he hadn't even considered when he first grabbed Pansy to give her a kiss; but later, when she started slagging off Hermione, he realised he had not just crossed the line but had erased it and built a brick wall between him and his girlfriend. He didn't care at that moment as he was having too much fun with Pansy, and his anger was keeping him from feeling the guilt that deep inside he knew he should be suffering. All he could think about was his next climax and the need to forget that Hermione even existed.

And now he was stuck between a beautiful and currently ex-girlfriend who wouldn't talk to him because he was a despicable, selfish bastard who had ridden roughshod over her feelings and then cheated on her, and an overeager, slutty limpet who he had no desire to even talk to, let alone ever touch again. And unless old Snape said something magical to Hermione there would be no completion of the Potions project and quite probably no Potions exam, or at least not a passing mark, and Draco had no idea how the hell he was going to explain that to his parents.

He sighed and began another circuit of the floor outside the Potions classroom, wishing he had realised at the time what Hermione had said to him. If only he could take it all back, reverse time and relive it, he would make sure he didn't make the same mistake again. Instead of raging at her for not giving him the intimacy he wanted so much he should have explained how he was feeling and given her the chance to understand that he wanted her so badly it hurt. And he should have listened to her, should have given her the chance to explain properly, too. That was what he had intended. He had meant to get Hermione to open up to him and give him a clue as to what he could do to make her more amenable to making love, but as soon as she mentioned his being a Death Eater he had taken umbrage and his temper had exploded.

Gods, he hoped Professor Snape was saying something to convince Hermione to give him another chance. Otherwise he would lose her forever, and he couldn't cope with that. Not now. He needed her, and not just to complete the Potions project. Draco was in love with Hermione — just as he now knew, thanks to those two little words he had missed in his anger and terrible self-righteousness last night, that she was in love with him, too.

In the months they had spent together, ever since the first time she had kissed him, Draco had been happier than he had ever been before in his life. He finally felt complete and he knew it was because of Hermione. It seemed to him that he and Hermione were always destined to be together; surely all the bickering for the previous six years had been the two of them trying to deny their attraction for each other. And what attraction it was. His heart always beat faster when he glimpsed Hermione for the first time each day, and every time he saw her even after only a short time apart. Blaise was right about him looking at her — he did, every possible moment he could get away with; sometimes unable to believe his luck that this beautiful girl was willing to be his girlfriend, especially knowing how much she disliked it being a secret.

But he hated that, too. He had lost count of the number of times he had become frustrated at not being able to kiss her or even hold her hand in public. He wanted that and more. He wanted everyone to know Hermione was his; that despite everything, despite all the awful things people thought about him, he had something wonderful in his life — something good. But he didn't dare. Nor did he dare to think about the future, about what would happen if the Dark Lord declared war. He knew that was at the root of Hermione's anxiety, more so than his being a Death Eater, but he hadn't wanted to acknowledge that; yet another reason for his anger with her.

The problem was that Hermione was right. They were and would remain on different sides, and it was always going to drive a wedge between them. Now he could see that Hermione had been protecting herself from getting hurt, knowing that greater intimacy would make things even more difficult for them in the long run. You only had to look at how much they were both hurting now to be able to imagine how much worse it would be if they had truly become lovers as he had pushed for so long. Right now he was willing to do anything to get Hermione to talk to him, to agree to take him back. There was nothing more important than this love they shared; there _must_ be a way to allow them to reconcile.

The door opened and Hermione walked out. Draco stared at her, his heart pounding with the joy of seeing her and the terror of what was to follow. Had Professor Snape managed to convince her to hear him out? She had been crying. He could tell that from her red-rimmed eyes and a shard of pain slid into his heart at the knowledge that he was responsible. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and kiss her, tell her that everything would be all right, but he couldn't do it. Not because they were in public and might get caught — at the moment he didn't care about that, and if that was all that was stopping him he would do it in a heartbeat. But he didn't want to try and then have Hermione reject him. That would break his heart.

'I am so sorry, my love,' he said quietly, his voice almost breaking with emotion. 'I know you're angry and disappointed with me and you've got every right to be, Hermione. I was a bloody idiot, I freely admit it. But please, give me a chance. Let me apologise to you and try to explain.'

Hermione just stared back at him without speaking. Draco could feel his heartbeat increase so much he wondered whether he might have a heart attack. A ball of ice settled in his stomach as he waited for her to say something.

'Please,' he begged, the misery showing on his face.

Hermione gave a single nod of agreement and motioned back towards the stairs to the Entrance Hall. Draco wondered where she was taking him, then realised that Hermione intended to talk to him on the way to the greenhouses. He frowned. There wasn't a problem with that generally — they usually walked to all their classes together, talking about the project as they went, but this wasn't something he wanted to discuss with other people around. He had already hurt Hermione once and he was fairly certain that talking about it was going to be painful for both of them. They needed to go somewhere they could be alone, somewhere they could talk and probably cry, and hopefully, eventually, hold each other and make up.

'Shouldn't we go somewhere a bit more private?' he asked as they crossed the Entrance Hall heading toward the front door.

Hermione turned her head to look at him. Her voice was weary and resigned as she answered. 'Why? I'm sure you can say what you need to in the time it takes to walk down to the greenhouses.'

'But we both need to talk,' Draco said. 'I didn't listen to you last night and I should have done. You need to tell me what you were going to say before I made a prat of myself — and I need to explain to you why I lost my temper and did such stupid things. I don't think it's something we're going to want to say with other people around, is it?'

Hermione's face was stern as she stared at him. 'We don't have any choice, Draco. If we don't go now we'll be late for class.'

'Then let's not go. Let's skip it and go somewhere more private instead. We can talk there and sort everything out,' Draco suggested.

Hermione shook her head and replied tartly, 'I'm not missing Herbology because of you, Draco. I'm far enough behind with my revision already, and I couldn't concentrate in Arithmancy because of all this so now I'm behind in that, too. I can't afford to miss anything else. Either you explain on the way to the greenhouses or don't bother, it's up to you.'

'But you need to talk as well,' Draco pointed out. 'There won't be time for both of us to speak.'

Hermione sighed loudly, her voice dull and unenthusiastic now. 'You talk on the way down. I'll think about what you said during the lesson. I'll talk to you on the way back up to the castle, then you can think about it while you're in the lab prepping the stuff for the potion.'

Draco's heart fluttered happily at Hermione's mention of the Potions project. Was she going to forgive him after all?

'You'll still work on the project with me, then?' he asked, sounding more hopeful than before.

Hermione stopped halfway down the stairs and focussed intently on Draco. 'I have no choice. Professor Snape told me that if we're not both working on the project when he comes to check on us after school we'll both be in detention every day until the end of term, and he will no doubt take great pains to ensure that it cuts into the revision time for our other exams . . . and he'll fail us for Potions and withdraw us from the exam.'

Draco looked horrified at the implication of her words, his heart sinking once more as he realised she was joining him under duress, not because she wanted to.

'But he can't do that, can he?' he asked quietly.

Hermione gave a bitter laugh. 'This is Professor Snape we're talking about, Draco. He can do whatever he damn well pleases. It would probably make his day to see me fail. He's always hated me.'

Draco's heart soared stoutly at her words and he felt adamant that he would do anything he had to in order to make sure Hermione passed her exam. He was aware that his Head of House was more than capable of being malicious to Hermione when he wanted; he had done it several times over the years and usually to protect Draco, now he thought about it. He didn't want Professor Snape failing Hermione because of his stupidity and selfishness; it wasn't fair.

Determined now, he said, 'Well, we're not going to fail, are we? We're going to finish the project and get an Outstanding mark.'

'I haven't forgiven you for what you said . . . what you _did_,' Hermione said with a dismissive shrug. She still looked hurt. 'But we do need to get the project completed, so I have to work with you. If you want to apologise and explain, then go ahead. But don't expect me to be jumping up and down and happy about what you're saying.'

'I'm not going to stop apologising until you accept it,' Draco told her. 'I love you, Hermione, and I need you to know that I mean it . . . and that I know I'm a complete knob.'

'I suggest you talk fast, then,' Hermione said as she resumed walking.

* * *

><p>Hermione spent the whole of Herbology thinking about what Draco told her on the walk to the greenhouses. She had to admit he had been thorough and heartfelt in his apology. She felt tears welling up as he talked about his night with Pansy and understood why he had wanted to go somewhere less populated to have the conversation. But it was vital that she go to Herbology; she needed to try to keep a grasp on her sanity that was slowly slipping away as her revision time was diminished ever further. So she kept walking and blinked back the tears, determined not to let them overwhelm her however hurtful the things were that Draco admitted to.<p>

After spending the entire lesson ignoring Harry and Ron's concerned looks and not concentrating on her work at all but instead thinking about what Draco had told her, Hermione took her turn at talking on the way back up to the castle, finally getting her chance to properly explain the issues that had stopped her from becoming intimate with him, both with regards to his allegiance to Voldemort and the fact that any relationship between them could never go much further than it already had. She knew it left Draco plenty to think about in return. He had told her that he loved her several more times, and although she never said it back, still hurt at his betrayal, she was aware that he knew her feelings for him ran as deep as his for her. He had heard the words that had slipped from her mouth during the argument, without her even realising at the time that she had said them.

Hermione was still angry with Draco, that wasn't going to go away quickly nor would the dull, aching pain she still felt about him shagging Pansy. But she honestly did believe Draco was sorry, for what he had both said and done, and that was enough for her to agree to work on the project with him. She wasn't sure it was going to be enough for anything else; but they would see what happened as their work together progressed. With the exams so close now she really didn't have time to think about much else anyway.

She headed for the Potions lab, where hopefully Draco had started brewing the potion. She sped up as she remembered Professor Snape's warning. She had to be there when he arrived to check on them, otherwise any reconciliation between her and Draco would be completely wasted.

Draco chanced a smile in her direction when she entered the room. He was stirring a steaming cauldron, having taken her warning not to wait to heart. Hermione was pleased with this as it meant he really had been listening, and hopefully not just to her advice about the project. She gave him a wan smile in return as she dumped her bag on a spare workbench.

'I take it Professor Snape hasn't been round yet?' she asked worriedly.

'Not yet. But I'm sure he would give us a little bit of breathing space. He's not going to turn up straight away,' Draco replied soothingly as he continued stirring.

'Where have you got to?' Hermione asked him interestedly as she took the project notebook out of her bag along with her quill and ink.

'I've only just started brewing.' Draco looked at his watch. 'I added the bat blood and the valerian root, then after six stirs counter-clockwise and half a turn clockwise I added the armadillo bile and aconite. I've been stirring it for ten minutes now. I have another four to go and then we add the beetle eyes.' He gestured to a bowl containing hundreds of tiny gleaming black spheres. 'Two scoops, plus we need to add the ground bark.' He pointed to another bowl next to the beetle eyes.

'What do you need me to do?' Hermione asked.

'Can you take a look at the next part of the recipe, please? I know it has to brew for an hour or something, but I'm not sure if I need to add anything else first.'

Hermione turned to the huge old Potions book that was open on the workbench in front of her. She pulled it closer and looked at the recipe for the potion they were brewing.

'What about cinnamon?' Hermione asked as she scanned the page. 'You have to add that at the same time as the beetle eyes and the bark and you need to stir each ingredient in separately.'

'Oh bugger, I forgot to get that out. Can you find it please?' Draco said, sounding annoyed with himself for making a mistake. He looked back at the cauldron and frowned. 'I'm not sure this is right, you know,' he admitted.

Hermione, who had been looking for the cinnamon, picked up the jar and walked towards the cauldron. She, too, stared at it for several seconds.

'It looks all right to me,' she said doubtfully. 'I assume it is supposed to be that colour, is it?'

Draco shrugged. 'I think so. The book doesn't mention colour, but it's hard for it to be anything else with all that bat blood.'

Hermione returned to the book and began examining the description to see if she could tell whether it was right or not. The last thing they needed was to have to start again, having wasted another couple of their precious few remaining hours. Despite his calm exterior, Hermione knew Draco was having as tough a time as she was; neither of them was in the best frame of mind for the subtle and tricky art of potion-making.

'We'll just have to see how it goes once the next ingredients go in. It's supposed to turn indigo and have curling steam rising from it just after adding them.' She glanced at Draco, who looked unhappy. 'No point in worrying about it if it has gone wrong. It's not the first time we've brewed a duff potion, and I'm sure it won't be the last.'

'But we're so short of time,' Draco pointed out.

'I know, but we'll get there,' Hermione said, trying to keep her voice positive. She was still upset with Draco, but now they were working on the project again she was keen for things to run smoothly and knew arguing wouldn't make it better. If they stayed at loggerheads they would never get this final potion brewed.

Draco picked up the bowl containing the beetle eyes and added them to the cauldron, the little dark spheres making a swishing noise as they fell. He gave the cauldron a stir, added the dried bark, stirred again, and then finally added the cinnamon that Hermione had measured out. He resumed stirring as he watched the liquid carefully.

Hermione saw the curls of steam begin to rise and felt herself relax, the hard knot of tension in her stomach shrinking somewhat. She heard Draco let out a sigh of relief as the potion turned the exact shade it needed to be.

'It has to brew on medium heat for forty minutes and then we add a tablespoon of doxy eggs and the same of horned slug juice,' Hermione told Draco as she read from the book. 'Then we turn it down to low heat for an hour.' She looked at her watch. 'If we do the doxy eggs and juice and then go to dinner, we can be back by the time it's finished brewing and have the next lot of ingredients ready. We really need to start combining some of the other potions we brewed, too. If we start with the stable ones we'll be able to store them until we do the final combine at the end.'

Draco was at the sink, washing up the bowls he had just used. When they were clean and dry he made his way to the area holding their ingredients and pulled out the jars containing the doxy eggs and the slug juice.

'That's a good idea — the dinner and sorting out the other potions. I wonder what time Snape's going to come round. It'd be sod's law that he comes just after we go to dinner.'

'I didn't think about that,' Hermione said worriedly. She had been updating the notes and put down the quill while she talked to Draco. She drummed her fingers on the table as she thought. 'Okay, new plan. If Professor Snape hasn't come by the time we add the ingredients we'll stay here and do our Arithmancy homework while we wait for him. Then we'll go to dinner after we've added the next lot of ingredients. The potion combining can wait until after we've had dinner. What do you think?'

Draco smiled as he moved closer to her. 'I think you're amazing, Hermione. You're always so logical, it's a talent all its own. It makes me think everything's going to be all right — that we'll manage to get everything done in time.'

He went to wrap his arms around her, an automatic gesture, but Hermione shook her head and moved away. Draco dropped his arms, looking disappointed.

'It's too soon,' Hermione told him quietly. 'I can't—' She broke off, unable to vocalise what she was feeling.

'I'm sorry, Hermione. I just really want to hold you,' Draco said. He sounded as emotional as she had. 'I know you're still angry with me and I understand that. I wish I could take the pain away. I would do anything to do that.'

'There's nothing you can do,' Hermione replied, her voice hard. Then more gently she added, 'You should start sorting out the next lot of ingredients. I need to go to the loo. If Professor Snape comes while I'm gone, stall him.'

She hurried out the door, needing to be away from Draco before the tears flowed again. While they had worked together on the potion she had almost forgotten about what he had done to her, but then he tried to hug her and it all came flooding back. It wasn't that she didn't want Draco to touch her . . . she did. She would have loved to feel his arms around her, holding her tight and telling her that everything was going to be fine. But it wasn't fine and she had a horrid feeling that if Draco hugged her she would completely go to pieces, would make a total idiot of herself, and her mortification level was deep enough already without adding that to it.

Hermione wanted to believe that Draco was truly sorry; not about what he had said — that she had almost forgotten already — but about what he had done with Pansy. But the problem was that he had done it, and only last night, and the idea of him holding Pansy in the same arms in which he held her was too painful to contemplate. How could she know he was sincere in what he told her? How was she ever supposed to trust him when any minute he could get annoyed with her and go off and do it again? She didn't understand how she was supposed to get over this, how she was supposed to forgive him.

She sat in the toilet stall for almost fifteen minutes, her heart breaking once more as she sobbed. She was in love with Draco, that was why what he had done hurt so much, but she just didn't know how to stop it from hurting. As the tears finally dried up Hermione considered what she was going to do. Draco had said he would do anything, and he was obviously ready for just that. She had to make the effort too, had to give him something he could work towards that would redeem him in her eyes. But what? Maybe it would be better if they just got through the project and then went their separate ways. It would certainly be easier, at least in the short term. But what about in the future? But there was no future, not for her and Draco. The future was war, and that would rip them apart more than anything else. Remembering that Professor Snape was supposed to be visiting, Hermione dried her eyes and made her way back to the Potions lab. She was unsurprised to see him waiting for her.

'So good of you to join us, Miss Granger. We thought you had got lost,' Snape said.

Hermione shook her head. 'I needed to go to the loo, sir. I'm sorry I was so long. I don't think I missed anything crucial, did I?'

'Apart from the time that's slipping away to get your project completed, no,' Snape replied drolly.

'Well, as you can see, we're both here and we're both working,' Draco pointed out.

'I'm glad you took my advice to heart,' Snape replied. 'Now, let's have a quick run-down on exactly where you are with the project so we can work out how much of an extension you need.'


End file.
